BIRDS IN CORNISH VILLAGE 293 



often all day long. At such times the birds in their 

 sodden plumage looked like drowned starlings 

 fished out of a pool and galvanized into activity. 

 Nor were they even seen to shake the wet off 

 a common action in swallows and other birds that 

 feed in the rain; they were too hungry, too 

 anxious to find something to eat to keep the 

 starling soul and body together before the long 

 night of eighteen or twenty hours would overtake 

 them. 



No doubt the winter of 1915-16 was excep- 

 tionally wet and cold, although without any 

 severe frosts; a long frost in February, when the 

 birds were most reduced, would probably have 

 proved fatal to at least half their number. But 

 though it continued wet and cold, things began 

 to mend for the starlings towards the end of 

 February, and in March the improvement was 

 very marked; they were not in such a perpetual 

 hurry; their time was longer now, and by the 

 end of the month their working day had increased 

 from five or six to twelve or fourteen hours, and 

 the light had increased and grubs were easier to 

 find. By April, the starlings no longer appeared 

 to be the same species as the poor, rusty, be- 



