JANUARY 31 



Amongst the crowd of weak, crippled, or half -starved 

 birds which throng wherever food is provided for them, 

 skylarks, even rooks and lapwings, find a place. 

 Many suffer from frost-bitten feet ; several starlings 

 still come although unable to stand, and a great-tit 

 afflicted with club-foot is a never failing pensioner. The 

 hardy finches and buntings, which burrow into the 

 sides of the stacks to find shelter from the bitter 

 weather, suffer comparatively little, but insect-eating 

 birds, such as the few pipits and wagtails which remain, 

 are reduced to sore straits. The plucky little Stone- 

 chats, snowed out of the cliff -slopes, flit tame and 

 robin-like about the sands. The Grey Wagtail seeks 

 factory-pools or spring heads, which remain unfrozen, 

 and Wrens come indoors seeking shelter. As inland 

 waters become completely ice-bound, the wild-fowl 

 desert them entirely and make their way to the 

 coast. In great frosts they do not linger there, but go 

 much farther south, perhaps to the marismas of 

 Andalusia, or the wide, shallow lakes on the northern 

 borders of the Sahara. Thus it was noticed that in 

 the great frost of 1895 there were few brent-geese 

 or other wild-fowl on the Essex coast. 



But, on the other hand, many seabirds which 

 ordinarily winter in the Spitzbergen seas, such as the 

 Iceland and Ivory Gulls, the Little Auk, and the 

 Northern or Brunnich's Guillemot, are recorded upon 

 the East coast, showing how wide is the area affected 



