SEPTEMBER BIRDS 



oak gallery, and the scarlet dahlias that so finely set off 

 parson's surplice as he mounts the pulpit. All sing the 

 old hymns of harvest-home with lusty goodwill. The 

 preacher's favourite text, as is well known, is from 

 Habakkuk, and his discourse is familiar, but he touches 

 all hearts anew. 



SEPTEMBER BIRDS 



THE turtle-dove has slipped away overseas, but we may 

 still hear the wood-pigeons uttering their 

 The plaintive songs, and they come more into 



Cushat evidence as the year wanes and the Con- 

 tinental flocks come in. A wandering tribe, 

 they are here to-day among the beechmast and gone 

 to-morrow to a place of acorns, a stubble, a clover-lea, 

 or turnip-field. The feeding pack makes an amusing 

 spectacle, as the rear rank birds continually fly forward 

 to a front place, so that the whole seems on the move, 

 save for the hedge-sentries. Pitching into their roosting- 

 place from the skies, flight following flight, always 

 flying into the wind, the pigeons make attractive targets 

 to the sportsman. They are marvellously vigilant; at 

 night in the wood we have put them out of the trees 

 by the striking of a match, and the crack of a twig seems 

 to mean to them as much as gun-fire. 



A CHARMING bird-note of Autumn is the reappearance 



of many feathered friends long lost to 



The sight, family cares and moulting trials having 



Garden sent them into mysterious retirement. The 



Birds blackbird comes boldly from the shrubbery 



where he has been skulking, in his Black- 



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