324 



AUTUMN AND WINTER 



ing food for partridges through January, when the spring 

 hunger begins, would do more to multiply the stock than 

 many of the troublesome and expensive breeding systems. 

 The partridge is a very heavy bird. It does not demand 

 quite so much sustenance as the woodcock, which will eat 

 its own weight of food in twenty-four hours ; but it needs 

 much food and has a wonderful instinct for its discovery. 

 Not even a green woodpecker has a finer taste in ants and 

 their grubs. In a district almost denuded of partridges by 

 several wet Junes one field was found packed with birds, 

 the day after a number of ant-hills had been cut open ; and 



NIGHTJAR 



GREATER SPOTTED WOOD- 

 PECKER 



the birds remained clearing up the relics for many weeks. 

 It is an odd fact, established by some very thorough investiga- 

 tions, that partridges living on chalk land are distinctly bigger 

 and stronger on the wing than others. 



The bird that, if one may say so, ought to suffer more 

 than most others, but does suffer less, is the sparrow. It is 

 essentially a grain eater. It does not care for fruit, and 

 only eats live things during one of the spring months, but it 

 is saved by its affection for the haunts of men and by the 

 stackyards, where there is always grain. In the yards it 

 is always associated with finches. Any one who likes to 

 conceal himself in loose straw can watch the finches from a 

 few yards or even feet ; and if there were more stackyard 



