BRAVING OUT THE WINTER 209 



getting nothing to eat and of becoming food for 

 others, the birds of temperate climates have to 

 seek a warmer country for the winter. 



Species whose habits render them independent of 

 leaves and herbage and fresh water tend to be 

 resident ; thus, the Eider-Duck and Razor-bill 

 will winter on the edge of the Arctic ice, and 

 Woodpeckers and Tits, whose food is sought on 

 boughs and trunks rather than on leaves, can 

 pass the winter in leafless forests that Warblers 

 and Cuckoos must leave, while the Grouse feed 

 on conifer- needles and buds or burrow in the 

 snow for their food. Berry- eating birds like 

 Thrushes can live till the supply is gone, and a 

 confirmed berry-eater, the Waxwing, roves about 

 the north all winter, its long wings, almost Swallow- 

 like in form, giving it ranging powers that enable it 

 to dispense with a distant southern journey in many 

 years, though it may even reach Northern India. 

 Some birds of prey, too, remain even in the high 

 north as long as there is anything to be picked up, 

 such as the Snowy Owl, though even this has 

 strayed south to the Punjab. 



The universality of the migration depends of 

 course on local conditions ; thus in the compara- 

 tively mild climate of our islands many species are 

 to be seen throughout the year which are migratory 

 in corresponding latitudes on the Continent, the 

 Robin and Song-Thrush for instance. Swallows 

 often remain after their time of leaving, and, as 

 Gilbert White observed, they stay particularly late 



