174 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



on the return migration in March. In many parts of East 

 Anglia the grey or * Royston ' crow is as familiar in winter 

 as the robin by the kitchen door. But its manners, though 

 equally intelligent, are warier ; it haunts the open country, 

 and particularly the marshes, where it picks up an abundant 

 living on the flats bared by the tide, and along the belts of 

 drift cast up along high-water mark. It will eat almost 

 any animal substance, either dead or killed by itself ; and it 

 prefers the marshes and estuaries because many forms of 

 aquatic life are found there in addition to the birds and 

 animals which haunt the uplands and cultivated fields. As 

 one lies on the edge of some great cliff, such as the South 

 Foreland, it is interesting to see the grey and black forms of 

 the hooded crows contrasted with the seagulls as they hunt 

 on the shore far below. On such beaches their food con- 

 sists chiefly of shell-fish ; and they have been seen to carry 

 up cockles and drop them from a height a device which 

 has also been learnt by at least one species of gull. 



Woodcock now breed in Britain in increasing numbers ; 

 but our whole stock of native birds is small in comparison 

 with the autumn immigration which takes place from 

 Scandinavia. The great rush takes place between the 

 middle of October and the middle of November ; and it is 

 expected at the time of the full moon, which is believed to 

 be chosen by the woodcock for their passage by night. The 

 movements of woodcock in this country form a very interest- 

 ing chapter in the history of migration, and one which is still 

 imperfectly understood. The general body of evidence tends 

 to show that the migrations of this species oscillate along a 

 path running from Scandinavia and northern Russia on the 

 north-east, south-westwards through our island to western 

 France, Spain and Portugal. The last point at which they 

 rest in our islands is the south-west of Ireland ; there they 



