AUTUMN ON THE MOORS 233 



exact number that still survives is, I believe, five pairs. To 

 preserve this last sad remnant from extermination, the 

 British Ornithologists' Club have established a "kite 

 fund," whereby these nests are watched and safe- 

 guarded, day and night during the whole period of 

 incubation. The danger, in this instance, arises, not 

 from gamekeepers, but from that fungoid excrescence on 

 science, the "collector" — the miscreant who poses under 

 the guise of a naturalist, but is more fitly described as a 

 receiver of stolen goods. Thus only may be averted, it is 

 hoped, the extermination of another indigenous British 

 bird. 



During the second half of October a marked change 

 will be observed in the habits of the stronger and wilder 

 moorland birds — 'especially the game and the wildfowl. 

 The grouse which, during September, had been congregated 

 high out on the hills in big, shifty, inaccessible packs, now 

 disperse into small congeries of a couple to half-a-dozen 

 birds, and sit boldly conspicuous on the open "white 

 ground," on stones and dykes, and on bare knowes. One 

 no longer expects point-shots at the young blackcocks ; 

 and (as already mentioned) the mallard-drakes having 

 acquired their glossy green heads and chestnut breasts, 

 these ducks show up boldly on the open waters, instead 

 of skulking in reed or sedge. 



All the strong wild birds, in short, having attained their 

 full feather and beauty, now assume the full measure of 

 confidence — not to say defiance- — that marks their winter 

 habit. They no longer seek a delusive security in con- 

 cealment. Early in the season such tactics were intelli- 

 gible enough with immature poults, or with ragged old 

 birds still in full moult. But with increasing strength 

 their former devices are cast aside : they now sit bare 



