,74 THE FALL OF THE YEAR 



mine in the gray November light. The grass-blades 



' are wilting, the old leaves are falling ; but no square 



foot of greensward will the winter kill, nor a single 



tree perhaps in all my wood-lot. There will be little 



less of life next April because of this winter. The 



^winter birds will suffer most, and a few may die. 



Last February, I came upon two partridges in the 

 snow, dead of hunger and cold. It was after an ex- 

 tremely long " severe spell " ; but this was not the only 

 cause. These two birds since fall had been feeding 

 ;, regularly in the dried fodder corn that stood shocked 

 ,j over the field. One day all the corn was carted away. 

 k The birds found their supply of food suddenly cut off, 

 and, unused to foraging the fence-rows and tangles 

 for wild seeds, they seem to have given up the strug- 

 gle at once, although within easy reach of plenty. 



Hardly a minute's flight away was a great thicket 

 of dwarf sumac covered with berries. There were 



bayberries, rose- 

 hips, greenbrier, 

 bittersweet,black 

 alder, and checkerberries 

 that they might have 

 found. These berries would have 

 been hard fare, doubtless, after 

 an unstinted supply of sweet corn; 

 but still they were plentiful and would have been 

 sufficient had the birds made use of them. 



The smaller birds that stay through the winter, 



