286 THE YORKSHIRE FEN 



conjecture. The fallow fields, where the roughly 

 ploughed clods are dry and warm, are first visited, not 

 only by the rooks, jackdaws, and pigeons, but also by 

 the flocks of peewits which have been feeding all 

 night on the wet marshes. The last come, not for 

 food, but, as it seems, for rest and company, remaining 

 quite still and quiet, and apparently enjoying the 

 warmth of the morning sun. But the great flocks of 

 day-feeding birds are eager in search of food, the rooks 

 and jackdaws prying beneath every clod, while the 

 pigeons fly over each other's backs, struggling for a 

 place in the crowd like their tame relations in a 

 London square. Perhaps the latest birds to awaken to 

 the business of the day are the partridges. Even in 

 August the coveys do not seem to move till six o'clock, 

 when they may be heard calling and making up their 

 minds to leave their roosting-places for the first-cut 

 stubbles. By eight o'clock in August or September, 

 the birds have ceased feeding, and fly to the river to 

 bathe and drink, by some common and well-understood 

 impulse, which brings the flocks in noisy and cheerful 

 companies to the water-side. When coming down to 

 drink, their flight and manner of approach is altogether 

 different from that which marks their descent upon the 

 fallow fields which are their morning feeding-grounds. 

 The serious business of the day is over, and they gO' 

 down to the water in great companies and processions, 

 flying low over the ground and constantly alighting 

 for a short time, then rising and flying onwards with 

 much cawing, chattering, and gossip. Several different 



