AUTUMN. 175 



south-west wind is felt, they are off inland to feed 

 on the fresh-water loch, from which they were 

 driven by the frost. They seem to know instinct- 

 ively that there is to be a thaw. While a thaw, 

 after a long-continued frost, is a happy change to 

 the birds, and even to healthy man, who de- 

 lights in the " roaring game," the weak and 

 infirm often think otherwise. In a thaw there 

 is a raw, cold, penetrating atmosphere. The 

 woods are cold and bare ; the mist condenses 

 on the boughs, from which there is a continued 

 drip; and when a wind shakes the branches, a 

 shower of heavy, slushy, icy drops descend, and 

 it is only the robust and strong that do not feel 

 the change harmful. 



During frosty weather the bird-catcher with his 

 cages of call-birds and limed twig visits the 

 whinny knowes and the banks and braes that lie 

 to the sun. In this way many thousands of our 

 song-birds are destroyed, for very few of the males 

 caught ever get reconciled to cage life, and the 

 hens, being of no value, are ruthlessly killed. In 



