260 



AUTUMN AND WINTER 



bred on inland moors begin to gather on the marshes outside 

 the sea-wall, and flights of dunlin and redshank pipe and 

 wheel across the ooze-beds threaded by the tide. Sparrows 

 form flocks in July, and migrate from towns to feed on the 

 ripening grain. As the berries ripen and the corn is carried, 

 the silent woods are quickened with the cries of wandering 

 titmice, and flocks of linnets begin to mass on the weed-filled 

 stubble. The change is least visible in the garden, where 

 many of the robins and thrushes are still to be seen in their 



old corners, and the wood-pigeon croons on with its old 

 summer note among the shadows swinging wider on the 

 lawn. Garden birds are far more stationary than most of 

 their kindred in the woods and fields ; they have shelter and 

 a more constant food-supply, and do not need to roam. But 

 even through the trees of the garden the flights of wandering 

 titmice come flitting in autumn unrest ; and sometimes a 

 troop of starlings will sweep over the tree-tops, as if to settle, 

 but rise again and seek the wider fields. 



Linnets may sometimes eat the corn spilt among the 

 stubble at harvest-time ; but they chiefly visit the cornfields 

 in search of the seeds of cornfield weeds. The presence 

 of these flocks in September and October is one of the most 

 constant and characteristic features of any corn-growing dis- 

 trict at this time. They range from small parties of a dozen 

 or twenty to great bodies of several hundreds, or sometimes 



