150 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



other migrants, choose a beam-wind for travelling. And 

 herring-fishers will tell of the brave flocks flying slowly 

 across the grey sea, the wearied alighting on the treacherous 

 waters, thinking it a new kind of marsh, perhaps, only to 

 be engulfed, or others, stronger, will fly up dripping brine 

 and spreading their sails, go on till they topple giddily on 

 to the wet sea-beaches. 



And when the reeds are yellow and the waters cobalt, 

 the farmer's heart is aggrieved, for then bands of hungry 

 thieves feed upon his newly-planted corn, pulling up the 

 plant and eating the succulent roots ; or else they steal the 

 hearts from the green clover plants in frosty weather ; or, 

 when the land is white with snow, they will pull off the 

 young . turnip leaves just escaped the fly ; and then thirty 

 fall at a shot of the old muzzle-loader, for at that season 

 they are easy to shoot. When on the wing they are more 

 difficult than a snipe to bring down, even to the expe- 

 rienced. 



Alas! that it should be written, but the lark is the 

 farmer's greatest enemy, not even the burly rook excepted. 

 And though hundreds die in hard weather, even in the 

 threshed ricks at the farmer's doors, and many perish a 

 prey to stoats and rats, who love them as dearly as any 

 gourmet, dragging them to their holes to eat them at 

 leisure, leaving the wings as a tally; still there are more 

 than enough to provide stock for future families, and the 

 surplus are far better killed to be served on toast, which is 

 a dish too good for any born sentimentalist, and fit only for 

 a sensible naturalist. In the azure carolling or on toast 

 beneath the pale yellow rays of the winter lamp they are 

 equally delightful. 



