226 THE LAND'S END 



is, like the caged bird, incapable of its proper 

 life, and to any one who can feel for a bird is 

 better dead. 



The second day of the frost made a wonderful 

 difference in the appeal ance of the birds out in the 

 fields, especially the starlings. These had now lost 

 all energy and were seen everywhere moving languidly 

 about over the pale frosty turf in a hopeless search 

 for a soft place, while others were found gathered at 

 some spot sheltered by a stone hedge from the bitter 

 north-east wind, standing crowded together in listless 

 attitudes, with drooping wings. By degrees the field- 

 fares and redwings disappeared. The song-thrushes 

 which, next to the starlings, were the most numerous, 

 appeared to fare better than the other soft-billed 

 species, owing to the abundance of snails in the stone 

 hedges. It was a mystery to me how with nothing 

 but those poor beaks they were able to get them out. 

 Snails were exceedingly plentiful in the crevices between 

 the stones, many of them easily got at, but so tightly 

 were they glued and frozen to the stone that I could 

 not pull them off with my fingers. They were like 

 limpets on a rock, yet it was plain to see that the 

 thrushes did get a good many out and so saved them- 

 selves from starvation. Their anvils were everywhere 

 near the walls, each with its litter of broken shells 

 about it. The hibernating snails were not only found 

 in the stone hedges ; they were also extraordinarily 

 abundant among the sandhills or towans at Lelant 

 and Phillack on the coast near St. Ives. They were 

 hidden in the sand at the roots of the coarse marram 



