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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