( IQ6 



XX. 



AUTUMN SONGSTERS. 



NOW that the leaves are falling fast, and in a hundred 

 different ways the advent of winter is foretold, the woods 

 and fields seem increased in dreary loneliness by the 

 absence of many bird songs that in spring and early 

 summer-time rang clear and loud from every wood and 

 thicket. Nature's choirs, however, are not altogether 

 silent ; the crash of melody that came with the budding 

 spring-time has died away, but in its place is left a 

 subdued refrain the last faint echoes of summer's 

 matchless music. The sweet songs of the army of 

 Warblers have ceased these little choristers are now 

 far away under a genial African sun ; the Cuckoo's notes 

 no longer sound over field and woodland. They ceased 

 during the last days of summer, and now the bird is safe 

 from winter tempests far away in the sunny south. The 

 chilly autumn days bring the close of nature's concert, 

 and with very few exceptions each musician's song is 

 hushed until the spring. Most of our resident birds are 

 silent, Finches and Buntings, Pipits and Wagtails passing 



