CHAPTER VIII 

 BIRD LIFE IN WINTER 



Land birds Gulls in bad weather Jackdaw and donkeys Birds in 

 the field Yellowhammers A miracle of the sun The common 

 sparrow An old disused tin-mine Sparrows roosting in a pit 

 Magpies' language Goldcrests in the furze bushes The Cornish 

 wren The sad little Meadow Pipit. 



A GOOD deal of space has already been given 

 to the sea-birds of this coast, but the land- 

 birds deserve a chapter too. I do not wish, 

 however, to give an account or a list of all of them, 

 but would rather follow Carew's example, and note 

 only " such as minister some particular cause of re- 

 membrance." The reader who would have more than 

 this must seek for it in one of those " hasty schedules 

 or inventories of God's property made by some 

 clerk " the local ornithologies and lists of species 

 in the Victorian and other histories and various other 

 works. On this exposed, wind-beaten, treeless coast 

 untry one does not expect to find an abundant or 



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