THROUGH THE YEAR 207 



thrush sang earlier in the autumn of 1908 than ever 

 I heard it sing before. It was singing a little in that 

 noble oakwood, Alice Holt, by mid-October. The 

 cirl bunting I had long known as an autumn singer, 

 so late as November in a garden in Hampshire ; and 

 I was pleased to find it in a Surrey village where 

 I had never looked for it. It came eve after eve, 

 and gave forth its clear, bubbling note at yellow 

 sunset, just when the mists were mingling with the 

 dusk. Each eve it seemed to sing from the same 

 spot in the hedge ; but in daytime I heard it once or 

 twice singing from one of the poles in the shoddy- 

 looking used-up hop garden. 



It is curious to notice that something in the dusk 

 and calm of damp eves sets the cirl bunting singing. 

 It is not so late as redbreast or thrush, but more 

 certain and precise than either in its hour and in the 

 spot it chooses. You may look at the clock, and 

 remark that it is time for the cirl bunting's " good- 

 night," and at that minute the note begins. 



WOOD SORREL 



As February wears on there are sundry small 

 signs in the green world that the harsher mood of 

 winter is relaxing : I know of none more exquisite 

 on its minute scale than is in baby leaves of lesser 

 celandine. Leaves that live through the winter are 

 rather shabby leaves by now. Thus the ground-ivy 

 leaves, never of the liveliest green, are dusky in 

 February. They look as if they had taken little 

 food from winter air and sun. The goosegrass has 



