Birds by Land and Sea 



glad at such times to subdue his epicurean palate 

 to the common domestic loaf. 



The little wren, however, is a rare pensioner, 

 and, when seen at all, is generally engaged briskly 

 searching beneath ledges and in dark corners for 

 the eggs and chrysalids of insects whose progeny is 

 thus untimely cut off. The blue-tit, which was 

 much in evidence about the house in the earlier 

 autumn, absented himself at this time for some 

 unknown reason. 



Out in the meadows the gulls were collected 

 in the corner of a large sheet of ice where there 

 was still a little open water, in which they con- 

 tended with low querulous cries for the right of 

 exclusive search, the less successful ones standing 

 by on the ice with heads drawn in between their 

 shoulders, as if waiting for the moving of this 

 strangely inert tide. 



The attitude of one bird, even on the first 

 advent of frost, immediately arrests attention. It 

 is the song-thrush. The missel-thrush seems of a 

 hardier turn, and rattles about the fields in active 

 search for a substitute for the frost-bound worm ; 

 but the song-thrush is like one who sees his doom. 

 All the alertness is gone out of him. The sudden 

 poses, expressive of keen attention, which at other 

 times mate him so interesting an object to watch, 

 are no longer there. With feathers puffed out, 

 neck drawn in, and set, straight beak, he stands 

 motionless, looking blankly before him. One 



