of a wheat-ear with the bill,
striking it while on the ground. The sparrows, again, clear the
standing wheat-ears, which at a little distance look thin and
disarranged, and when handled are empty.

There were many missel-thrushes about the Chace; they are fond of a
wooded district. They pack together in summer and part in winter--just
opposite in that respect to so many other birds, which separate in
warm weather and congregate as it grows cold, so that the lower the
temperature the larger the flock. In winter and spring the
missel-thrushes fly alone or not more than two together. After their
young have left the nest they go in small packs. I saw ten or twelve
rise from an arable field on the 18th of June last year; there do not
often seem to be more than a dozen together. I have counted ten in a
pack on the 16th of September, and seven together as late as the 2nd
of October. Soon after that they appear to separate and act on their
individual wishes. Starlings in like manner pack after their young can
fly, but then they do not separate in autumn.

It may be remarked that by autumn the young missel-thrushes would not
only fly well, but would have been educated by the old birds, and
would have come to maturity. Their natural independence might then
come into play. But these are effects rather than causes, besides
which I think birds and animals often act from custom rather than for
advantage. Among men customs survive for centuries after the original
meaning has been lost. I had always been told by country people that
the missel-thrush was a solitary bird, and when I first observed a
pack and mentioned it some incredulity was expressed. Very naturally
in summer people do not see much but hay and wheat. It was noticed on
the farms about the Chace in the springs of 1878 and 1879 that the
corncrakes, which had formerly been so numerous and proclaimed their
presence so loudly, were scarcely heard at all.

It is a little outside my subject, since it did not occur in the
Chace, but the other day a friend was telling me how he had been
hunted by bucks while riding a bicycle. He was passing through a
forest in the summer, when he suddenly became aware of six or seven
bucks coming down a glade after him. The track being rough he could
not ride at full speed--probably they would have outstripped him even
if he had been able to do so--and they were overtaking him rapidly. As
they came up he saw that they meant mischief, and fear