210 



COUNTRY RAMBLES. 



have many times been in the neighbourhood he frequents, I have not 

 heard the Green Woodpecker's welcome voice for some weeks. Why 

 is he so silent? 



Apples in garden tinting and changing colour rapidly. 



6th. Pouring in torrents nearly all day. Wet Holiday is a 

 better name than Bank Holiday, I think. Rooks passing overhead 

 at four o'clock a.m., and House Sparrows very noisy at that hour. I 



AFRICAN MARIGOLDS. 



have been circumventing the wily Trout and the bull-dog Perch to-day, 

 and whilst doing so got drenched to the skin, but the following notes 

 amply repaid me for the drenching: Ragwort one mass of blossom 

 still; Common Wren singing continuously; Swifts careering over the 

 lake the whole day long; Green Woodpecker heard; Moorhen 

 dibbing on the mud on opposite bank (how prominent the orange- 

 tipped beak and white tail coverts); porcelain petals of the Water 



