Page:Bird Life Throughout the Year (Salter, 1913).djvu/44

34 them from the hill country to the lowlands, where they fall victims to the gamekeeper. So widespread are the effects of a few weeks of weather of a type for the like of which our ordinary winters leave the birds unprepared, encouraging them to linger till the unexpected occurs, bringing disaster in its train. But fortunately these spells of relentless cold are few, and it is rare for two such to occur in successive winters, while so soon are the gaps refilled when times of plenty return that the numbers of our resident birds are in no case permanently affected.