AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



blackcock, with his blue-black plumage, white wing- 

 bars, scarlet wattles, and lyre-shaped tail, is perhaps the 

 handsomest of our game-birds. He takes a long time 

 from early June till mid-September to mature, and 

 through the summer is ,jhe tamest of game-birds ; but 

 later he becomes one of the wildest. In a mild autumn 

 he may be obsessed by amatory ardour, fantastically 

 dancing before the hens, his fine tail expanded, and 

 wings trailing, as if courting days had come. 



THE cub-hunting season has opened, and already some 

 cubs have proved themselves stout foxes. 

 Cubbing For the cubs, as for hound-puppies and 

 Days young hunters, a hard schooling begins. 



The cubs have a short time for learning all 

 about the realities of a fox's life, since by November 

 they must rank as grown foxes. Gone are the glorious 

 days in the cornfields, with game on all sides. The 

 family begins to break up, instead of lying together in 

 the coverts at night, dreaming of the roosting long- 

 tails; though echoing barks show that the cubs may 

 keep touch until finally scattered by hounds. 



HARVEST-HOME 



ALL good country people go to harvest festival. Many 



who attend are rarely seen in church ; if the 



Harvest gamekeeper is present so also is the 



Festival poacher. Harvest decorations appeal to all; 



the great sheaves of corn in the chancel, the 



apples on the window ledges, that set the choir-boys' 



mouths watering, the giant marrows, and loaves about 



the font, the garlands of travellers '-joy that festoon the 



118 



