CHAPTER XIV 



WINTER ASPECTS AND A 

 BIRD VISITATION 



Back to the land Golden days in winter Colour of dead bracken 

 Lichen on trees in winter Furze and bracken in winter A 

 New Forest memory Effect of rain on dead bracken An artist 

 in the rain Snow and bird migration from the east The birds 

 return east How the migrants are received at St. Ives Birds 

 taken with fish-hooks Bush-beating Dolls and gins for the chil- 

 dren Maimed birds Wesley revisits St. Ives A compassionate 

 woman Story of a robin Mr. Ebblethwaite and the gulls The 

 author follows Ruskin's advice. 



HAVING finished, not very satisfactorily perhaps 

 either to myself or readers, with the difficult 

 subjects which occupy the last few chapters, 

 I returned with renewed zest to my solitary rambles 

 among the hills and along the coast, particularly to 

 that most fascinating strip of country named " Corn- 

 wall's Connemara." It was going back to the land and 



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