JANUARY 23 



hammers, and one picks out by their red crowns and 

 white cheeks a little party of Tree Sparrows amongst 

 the vulgar crowd. Nor must we omit, if within reach 

 of the coast, to visit the piles of seaweed carted by the 

 farmers to the top of the foreshore after the autumn 

 gales and left there until sufficiently decayed to furnish 

 a top-dressing for their fields. These seaweed-heaps, 

 full of small flies and their larvae, attract all the insecti- 

 vorous birds of the neighbourhood. Jackdaws and 

 starlings have trodden them free of snow and broken 

 up the surface, laying them open to the inspection of 

 Meadow and Rock Pipits which trip nimbly about, 

 picking up grubs and pupae. Here, too, will be found 

 the few Pied Wagtails which have remained to winter 

 with us, now probably wishing that they had gone with 

 the rest, for in cold weather they seem to lose all their 

 sprightly, light-hearted activity. Near them a cock 

 Stonechat, with his black head now very rusty, flips 

 his tail with all the spirit that he can muster. 



By early afternoon full thaw prevails. Starlings 

 race along a sunny bank from which the snow has gone, 

 quarrelling noisily. Next day the last long streak of 

 snow fades under the persuasive influence of drizzling 

 rain. Birds betake themselves again to their usual 

 haunts and resume their ordinary avocations. But the 

 case is different when the snow, reinforced by fresh 

 falls or hardened by night frosts, lasts for more than^ 

 three days. The Redwings, smallest and most delicate 



