AUTUMN TONES 



A SUDDEN outburst of Autumn song from a wren, ending 

 with trilling notes, and ending most 

 Lyrical abruptly, seems to bid us take heart of 

 Wrens grace, and to throw off such melancholy 

 ideas as the pathetic whistling of the robin 

 would persuade us are suited to the season. Two wrens 

 in a garden will sing one against the other, in strophe 

 and antistrophe; on one song culminating in its trill, 

 the other begins so certainly that it sounds as if one bird 

 were singing without pause. The wren is justly famed 

 for singing in unexpected places and times, even at 

 night or in snow-time, and sometimes when on the 

 wing : now seeming to enjoy a duet, then to be testing 

 its voice against a rival's. 



THE mellow cawing of rooks on October mornings, as 

 they visit their old nest-trees, or forage 

 Music of among walnut trees (their favourite tree- 

 the Fall inns to-day), always seems in harmony with 

 Autumn's mood; as does the pathos in the 

 robin's song, and the inflected whistling of the chimney- 

 pot's solitary starling. A note which often breaks the 

 prevailing silence of " The Fall " is the call of the nut- 

 hatch, a liquid " quit, quit, quit," which may be heard 

 for twenty minutes on end in orchard and garden. A 

 wise thrush may carol; linnets give evening concerts; 

 but it is to the robin that we are more indebted for 

 music than to all others ; there seem to be robins singing 

 on every hand throughout a countryside. 



Rooks lose no chance of bullying the harmless kestrel, 

 which easily evades their attacks, or of giving chase to 



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