FEBRUARY 51 



heavy crop of hips and haws ; holly berries were 

 unusually abundant, and as yet there is little diminu- 

 tion in the store. Perhaps this provender may come in 

 handy still. There is a very large holly tree close 

 some people think too close to my window, which 

 bears a very large crop each year. Its branches are still 

 thickly set with scarlet fruit, although wood-pigeons 

 (there were six in it one morning lately) and pheasants 

 resort to it ' when so dispoged.' But there have been 

 none of the usual visits of redwings ; while blackbirds 

 and thrushes despise it altogether, as earthworms are to 

 be had in abundance. A pair of fine mistletoe thrushes 

 kept me company as long as an old spindle bush had 

 any rosy berries left, but they finished these a fortnight 

 ago, and have gone afield for something more succulent 

 than holly berries. 



XIV 



In the present painfully congested state of knowledge, 

 it amounts almost to a calamity when a fresh The curlew 

 discovery dispels some venerable mystery. Sand P i P er 

 Hence it is with mingled feelings that one learns that 

 the egg of the curlew sandpiper has at last been 

 found. Hitherto the knot and the curlew sandpiper, 

 two diminutive and nearly related members of the sub- 

 family of Snipes, and both well known on our coasts as 

 spring and autumn passengers, have maintained the 

 distinction of being the only British birds which have 

 succeeded in defying the curiosity of egg-collectors. 

 Not a single egg of either species has ever been found 



