JANUARY 27 



until a later period of the winter, was almost equally 

 long and severe. With real cold of this sort, with the 

 temperature in the neighbourhood of zero, a white 

 hazy stillness pervades the air ; there is not a breath 

 stirring to shake the powdered frostwork from twig and 

 bough. For once, in place of our usual winter of mild 

 Atlantic type, we have a specimen of the ordinary 

 January weather of north-eastern Europe. Continuous 

 and pitiless cold, ringing the earth's surface with a 

 crust of iron, would try the birds severely, but they 

 are in still worse case when all familiar landmarks are 

 wiped out by deep and lasting snow. There is then a 

 general move in search of more favourable conditions, 

 and this not seldom becomes a wild sauve qui peut, in 

 which millions of birds take part. As the snow, 

 sometimes on the wings of a roaring blizzard, comes 

 from the north-east, the movement is naturally towards 

 the south-west, though, be it noted, birds object to 

 fly directly before the wind, which in that case upsets 

 their equilibrium and chills them by blowing between 

 their feathers . They prefer the wind sideways or abeam. 

 Perhaps instinct may also guide them towards the 

 sole part of the kingdom where they may hope to find 

 less arctic conditions. Great numbers appear at times 

 to cross from the Welsh headlands to the south of 

 Ireland. But too often disappointment awaits them 

 even in the most favoured districts of the west country, 

 and in the spring we find the dried remains of thrushes 



