AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



tree-trunk between himself and the guns. A lordly old 

 cock, with emerald neck and burnished collar and be- 

 jewelled breast shining in the October sun, as he 

 swaggers about a clearing where acorns are to be picked 

 up, is surely the most brilliant of British birds. 



HOUNDS and horseman, a gallant company, disturbed 

 the early-morning nap of an old red fox. 

 The Wily Maybe he knew well enough that his cubs 

 One were the rightful quarry of cub-hunters, 



and that several weeks of grace were his 

 due before real hunting began. But he was too old to 

 take any chances ; he was up and off like a red streak 

 at the moment he awoke, heading down a long, straight 

 narrow ride, with a hedge at one end, and open country 

 beyond. Fast as he went away, they pressed him hard ; 

 and suddenly he changed his mind. Just short of the 

 hedge a side-leap took him into the thick stuff. He 

 sneaked round a great clump of bramble, and lay low. 

 Hounds crashed past, and took the hedge; as the last 

 stern went over, there was one person who saw how the 

 old fox stole back by the way he had come perhaps to 

 finish his nap. 



SONGS AND REVELS 



DAWN, on summery October days, is greeted by a 



chorus of bird song that is like an echo of 



The Spring. The robins now form the main 



October choir, as did the blackbirds in May; every 



Chorus cock robin of the countryside sings his 



sweetest as day breaks. In the hour after 



sunrise the rooks visit their nest-trees, and set up a 



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