174 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



rich and Vcaried tints of the autumnal foliage are 

 blended into that beautiful harmony of colours 

 which Nature alone can combine. 



Looking towards the south, the sea, although 

 at the distance of several miles, is spread before 

 you like a mirror, studded with coasting vessels 

 and fishing smacks, and perhaps now and then 

 an Indiaman, or ship of war, beating up Channel 

 for the Thames. On the extreme right is a cloud- 

 like, but well-defined object standing out from 

 the distant horizon. This is the Isle of Wight. 

 In the middle distance the tall spire of Chichester 

 cathedral shoots up from the plain, and the long, 

 winding creeks and estuaries in its neighbour- 

 hood are all distinctly visible, as the rays of the 

 sun are brightly reflected from their waters ; while 

 stretched below, between you and the sea, the flat 

 cultivated tract, which extends from the south- 

 western borders of the county as far as Brighton, 

 spreads to the right and left, and as your eye 

 wanders along the dark line of the coast, you 

 may, if the weather be clear, take in, almost at 

 one view, more than fifty miles of its extent, in- 

 cluding the Isle of Wight on the west and the 

 dimly-seen cliffs of Newhaven on the east. 



Nothing is so fatal to the breed of partridges 

 on the hills as a cold, wet spring and summer. 

 These birds pair early, and the nest is frequently 



