THE STRUGGLE WITH COLD 



323 



KESTREL 



myriad seeds that are to be found in every single square inch 

 of earth of open country. Other animals save their lives by 

 reducing vitality. But birds, though they store fat within 

 their bodies, and can thus bear 

 some temporary starvation, must 

 live the active life though the 

 ground is iron with frost or 

 blanketed with snow. 



Among the birds that suffer 

 most from want of winter food 

 are partridges, though their case 

 is seldom if ever quoted. All game 

 preservers feed their pheasants, spending often unheard of 

 sums in this way ; and of course the artificial multiplication 

 of these wild fowl makes this quite necessary. But com- 

 paratively few pay this attention to the partridges, which 

 deserve it more since they do little if any harm, while 



the pheasants do much. 

 The partridge is essen- 

 tially the bird of culti- 

 vated fields : the better 

 the farming, the more 

 the birds, it is said. 



The stubbles are 

 their feeding-ground, the 

 grasses their sleeping- 

 place, the south side of 

 the hedgerows their 

 siesta couch, the dust 

 of the roads their bath. When the stubbles are well 

 gleaned and birds plentiful, partridges begin to suffer 

 seriously towards the end of January. The theory is a 

 personal one ; but the dogma may be broached that scatter- 



ROOK 



