244 THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



flocks yet all flying one course, bound for the 

 English fields. Here on our eastern coasts we 

 may be sure of meeting with the Hooded Crow, 

 from the middle of October onwards to the spring. 

 Sometimes the air for days is filled with these 

 birds migrating into our islands ; and here, on the 

 coast, many of them live all through the winter, 

 picking their food from the muds and from the 

 fields adjoining the sea. They are remarkably 

 gregarious, and in many of their habits and move- 

 ments resemble Rooks. They feed on the newly 

 sown grain, and may be seen in the pastures with 

 Starlings and Rooks, or on the turnip fields and 

 stubbles with Doves. They frequent the coast 

 just as much as the fields, feeding on sand-worms, 

 cockles, and any garbage that may be washed 

 ashore. 



Then come the REDWINGS and the FIELD- 

 FARES, the BRAMBLINGS and the SNOW BUNTINGS 

 by day and by night, filling the air with their 

 well-remembered notes, and all hastening on and 

 on, across earth and sea, to the spots where it is 

 their custom to live during the months of their 

 banishment from home. Perhaps a more dis- 

 tinguished stranger will pass along a GRAY 

 SHRIKE, a LITTLE GULL, a few SHORE LARKS, 

 or a gipsy LAPLAND BUNTING. 



Then the birds whose summer haunts we have 

 already visited, whose nests we have already seen, 

 come down from inland haunts to spend the winter 

 on these sandy shores. There we may meet 

 with the CURLEW, shyer far than we found him 

 on the moors in summer ; with the sprightly 

 REDSHANK, with the DUNLINS, in their gray and 

 white winter dress, now congregated into enormous 



