144 NATUEE NEAR LONDON. 



tips still point upwards. Dull purple burrs cover the 

 burdock; the broad limes are withering, but the 

 leaves are thick, and the teazles are still flowering. 

 Looking upwards, the trees are tinted; lower, the 

 hedges are not without colour, and the field itself 

 is speckled with blue and yellow. The stubble is 

 almost hidden in many fields by the growth of weeds 

 brought up by the rain ; still the tops appear above 

 and do not allow it to be green. The stubble has 

 a colour white if barley, yellow if wheat or oats. 

 The meads are as verdant, even more so, than in the 

 spring, because of the rain, and the brooks crowded 

 with green flags. 



Haws are very plentiful this year (1881), and excep- 

 tionally large, many fully double the size commonly 

 seen. So heavily are the branches laden with bunches 

 of the red fruit that they droop as apple trees do with 

 a more edible burden. Though so big, and to all 

 appearance tempting to birds, none have yet been 

 eaten; and, indeed, haws seem to be resorted to 

 only as a change, unless severe weather compels. 



Just as we vary our diet, so birds eat haws, and 

 not many of them till driven by frost and snow. If 

 any stay on till the early months of next year, wood- 

 pigeons and missel-thrushes will then eat them ; but 

 at this season they are untouched. Blackbirds will 

 peck open the hips directly the frost comes ; the hips 

 go long before the haws. There was a large crop 

 of mountain-ash berries, every one of which has been 

 taken by blackbirds and thrushes, which are almost 

 as fond of them as of garden fruit. 

 Blackberries are thick, too it is a berry year and 



