232 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



half-buried fence, and a little tragedy would be 

 played out upon the snow. Five Wild Swans 

 cleave the thin air afar up, and fly off with out- 

 stretched necks. The tiny brown Wren bids 

 defiance to the weather, darting in and out of 

 every hole and crevice, and usually reappearing 

 with the cocoon of some insect in its bill. 



These delicate footprints reproduce the long 

 toes of the Lark, and those are the tracks of 

 Meadow-pipits. The hedge berries are mostly 

 gone ; and the Redwing and Fieldfare have run 

 along the fence-bottoms in search of fallen fruit. 

 Those larger tracks by the sheep-troughs show 

 that the hungry Rooks have been scratching 

 near, and the chatter of Magpies comes from the 

 fir-tree tops. Scattered pine-cones betoken the 

 crossbills ; and once in the fir- wood we caught a 

 glimpse of the scarlet appendages of the rare 

 Bohemian Waxwing. The gaudily coloured 

 Yellow-hammer shows well against the snow, and 

 bathes its orange plumage in the feathered rain. 

 How our British finches seem to enjoy frost and 

 snow! Certain it is that now their stores of 

 food become scant ; but then they throw in 

 their lot with the sparrows of barn-door and 

 rick-yard. The bright bachelor-finch stands out 



