WILD LIFE ON THE WING 
that the place was pleasant, and noting the 
nakedness of the land beyond, descended to the 
streamside to drink. It was a little oasis in the 
emptiness of the woods, and was full of pilgrims. 
A pair of squirrels dug for rotting nuts, and a 
thin woodcock squatted under a fern stub where 
at least it was dry. The blackbirds turned over 
each leaf repeatedly; Breac au Tril the Chaf- 
finch, and Colm coille the Pigeon ransacked the 
tree-roots for beech mast ; and surest mark of 
stress of weather a couple of white-rumped 
bramblings helped them. 
Shacaim, with three of his fellows, rested there 
for four days and all that while the frost never 
broke. By day the redwings, each in his own 
little plot, turned over the leaves industriously 
in search of food which they could not find : 
by night they roosted among the hollies on 
perches rough with ice. On the fifth day they 
departed. As though at a given signal, one by 
one, they quietly left the place and went 
inland. 
That night they roosted, heads to wind, in the 
hedges, and by dawn their toes were frozen to 
the bark. The redwings went into the fields 
and followed the cattle. Where a bullock had 
lain all night, the snow melted, and the sodden 
grass held possibilities a torpid snail or hiber- 
nating grub. All day a grey mist hung about 
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