JANUARY , 21 



The snow is crossed in every direction by tracks, 

 many of them made by mice. Larger spoor of the 

 same type shows how unsuspectedly numerous rats 

 are in the banks. Here a squirrel has paid his daily 

 visit to a store of beech-nuts in the side of a heap of 

 leaf-mould in the shrubbery. His prints show slender 

 toes and long nails. 



Yet another series of tracks puzzles us until we disturb 

 various rabbits which are " lying out " amongst the 

 brambles, showing that a stoat has driven them from 

 their burrows. How is it, we wonder, that in the mildest 

 winter some stoats change colour, becoming piebald 

 or even veritable ermines, while the coats of others 

 even in the most severe frosts show no trace of such a 

 modification of tint. Age, sex or individual constitu- 

 tion may perhaps furnish the clue. A moving shadow 

 passing swiftly up the slope calls attention to a kestrel 

 which is quartering over the hill-side. Presently he 

 passes in hot chase of a skylark. Kestrels undoubt- 

 edly kill many small birds in snow-time when other 

 supplies are cut off. We have surprised them red- 

 handed upon fresh-killed thrush and starling. 

 Scattering the snow from the thistle-heads, a party of 

 goldfinches takes flight with musical twitter. The 

 robins have discovered that in the garden a manure- 

 heap is being moved — no small stroke of fortune in 

 times such as these ; nearly a dozen of them have 

 congregated at the spot. The gardener finds that 



