58 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



trees in the autumn ; but as brown and brittle 

 as if it had been parched by a burning sun. 



I resided during that winter in a cottage on 

 the coast of Sussex about two miles to the west 

 of Bognor. A small meadow lay in front of my 

 windows, flanked on one side by a grove of stunted 

 oaks, which were gradually disappearing before 

 the inroads of the sea for with spring-tides and 

 stormy weather it rushed over the frail bank, 

 tearing away the shingle and washing the pro- 

 jecting roots of the trees and on the other by a 

 wide expanse of the channel as far as the en- 

 trance to Pagham harbour, where the low flat 

 coast appeared to extend suddenly to the south- 

 ward until lost in the low promontory of Selsey 

 Bill, above which the loftier outline of the Isle 

 of Wight was visible in the distance. 



About the middle of January the severity of 

 the season appeared to have reached its climax. 

 A cutting north-easter swept the water and car- 

 ried the foam from the waves out of sight in an 

 instant. All the larger features of the landscape 

 seemed to have lost their natural colours, and 

 were bathed in the extremes of light and shade. 

 The surface of the earth, houses, banks, hedges, 

 and corn-stacks were covered with snow. The 

 sky was black and lowering, blended, as it were, 

 into one vast cloud which looked still more 



