Hard Times for the Birds. 337 



will begin in so faint-hearted a fashion that the ground 

 in the centre of the fields is still soft, and will ' poach' 

 under the hoofs of cattle, while by the hedge it is 

 hard. But by slow degrees the cold increases, and 

 ice begins to form. Again, it will freeze for a week 

 and 3'et j'ou will find very little ice, because all the 

 while there has been a rough wind, and the waves on 

 the lake cannot freeze while in motion. So that a 

 long frost is extremely difficult to foresee. 



But it comes at last. Two really sharp frosts will 

 cause ice thick enough to bear a lad at the edge of 

 the lake ; three will bear a man a few yards out ; 

 four, and it is safe to cross : in a week the ice is be- 

 tween three and four inches thick, and would carry a 

 wagon. The character of ice varies : if some sleet 

 has been falling — or snow, which facilitates freezing 

 — it is thick in color; if the wind was still it is 

 dark, sleek, perfectly transparent. It varies, how- 

 ever, in different places, in some having a faint 

 yellowish hue. There are always several places 

 where the ice does not freeze till the last — breathing- 

 holes in which the ducks swdm ; and where a brook 

 enters it is never quite safe. 



The snipes come now to the brook and water- 

 meadows. Following the course of the stream, field- 

 fares and redwings rise in numbers from every haw- 

 thorn bush, where they have been feeding on the 

 peggies. Blackbirds start out from under the bushes, 

 where there is perhaps a little moist earth still. The 

 foam where there is a sliglit fall is frozen, and the 

 current runs under a roof of ice ; the w^hite bubbles 

 travel along beneath it. The moor-hens cannot get 

 at the water ; neither can the herons or kingfishers. 



