146 



Peacock : Weather and Birds. 



to begin. The birds of last season, or what I have always taken 

 to be them, do not follow their elders' example till well into 

 April. The fifth nest here in 1899 was not begun till the 

 26th April, and Sunday, the 30th, was the day they worked at it 

 and practically constructed it. It is not a difficult matter to 

 form a rookery, if one is wanted, where there are suitable trees ; 

 but as the Rook has learned such bad habits and grown so 

 remarkably destructive, during the late hard winters and dry 

 summers, it is not so popular as it once was. 



Frost and snow, as far as my experience goes, will drive 

 most of our common birds to the swede fields at last. The 

 hips and haws (i.e., Rosa and Cratccgus fruit) do not last for 

 long, and with the failure of insect life, earth-worms, etc., if the 

 cold is prolonged their doom is certain. Nature is cruel with 

 her prodigal abundance of life, and 4 the crumbs thrown out to 

 the birds' by well-intentioned people barely prolong the agony 

 which meat or fat would at once satisfy. 



Where the Hare and Rabbit are not present to set the 

 example of eating the swedes the Long-tailed Field Vole 

 (A)'vicola glareolus Schreber) always will, ' charming ' what he 

 does not eat into little fragments. When pressed the Short- 

 tailed Field Vole (A. agrestis Linn.) will do the same, and where 

 the Water Vole (A. amphibius Desmar. ) is present it is not 

 a whit behind. The Wood Mouse (Mus sylvaticus Linn.) may 

 also at times be detected as busy as the rest. I have never 

 found the Common Shrew {Sorex vulgaris Linn.) eating swede, 

 hut it is a purely animal, insect, or molluscan feeder, I believe. 



But our common birds require no suggestions from the 

 animal world, their own observation has taught them that, even 

 in mild, open weather, within 1 the warbles ' of the swede lies 

 a very dainty piece of insect food, in the grub of the Turnip 

 Gall Beetle (Ceuthorrhynchus pleurostigma Marsh., or C. sulcicollis 

 Gyll.), according to our good friend the Rev. A. Thornley. The 

 Rook. Partridge, Pheasant, and Thrush, even in the mildest 

 weather, will all attack the roots for the grubs, opening the way 

 for the weaker-billed birds to follow should necessity 'constrain 

 them. During this January I examined many thousands of 

 swedes, both growing in the fields or 'led off' into pastures 

 and meadows for ewes to feed on. The greater majority were 

 ' warbled' ; some very badly indeed. In the growing crops few 

 of the galls had been opened, and then apparently only during 

 the spell of rough frost- and snow that set in on the 10th 

 December 1899. But where they had been 'led off' in nearly 



Naturalist, 



