NATURE NEAR BRIGHTON. 107 



sprays causes a thickening almost as if there were 

 leaves there. The leaves, in fact, when they come, 

 conceal the finish of the trees ; they give colour, but 

 they hide the beautiful structure under them. Each 

 tree at a distance is recognizable by its particular 

 lines; the ash, for instance, grows with its own 

 marked curve. 



Some flakes of snow have remained on this bough 

 of spruce, pure white on dull green. Sparingly dis- 

 persed, the snow can be seen falling far ahead between 

 the trunks ; indeed, the white dots appear to increase 

 the distance the eye can penetrate ; it sees farther be- 

 cause there is something to catch the glance. Nothing 

 seems left for food in the woods for bird or animal. 

 Some ivy berries and black privet berries remain, a 

 few haws may be found ; for the rest, it is gone ; the 

 squirrels have had the nuts, the acorns were taken by 

 the jays, rooks, and pheasants. Bushels of acorns, too, 

 were collected by hand as food for the fallow deer in 

 the park. A great fieldfare rises, like a lesser pigeon ; 

 fieldfares often haunt the verge of woods, while the 

 redwing thrushes go out into the meadows. It can 

 scarcely be doubted that both these birds come over to 

 escape the keener cold of the winters in Norway, or 

 that the same cause drives the blackbirds hither. In 

 spring we listen to Norwegian songs the blackbird 

 and the thrush that please us so much, if not them- 

 selves of Scandinavian birth, have had a Scandinavian 

 origin. Any one walking about woods like these in 

 January can understand how, where there are large 

 flocks of birds, they must find the pressure of numbers 

 through the insufficiency of food. They go then to 



