1 86 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



would certainly declare that their year of life begins 

 in the autumn. It is then that most of them get their 

 new clothes, and that the birds of the year start life 

 on their own account away from their parents. And 

 their parents, we may imagine, feel that the year's 

 work is ended when they have seen the last of their 

 lazy, lingering youngsters off the premises. Not all 

 birds drive away their young ; nor are the young of 

 all so precocious as to begin love-making in autumn ; 

 but birds which pair for life often seem to choose 

 their mates as soon as possible after they have 

 assumed full plumage, and that important crisis 

 occurs in the first autumn of most birds' lives. 



THE COURTING YELLOWHAMMER. 



It is in autumn, for instance, that yellowhammers 

 fight so much ; and if you watch their fights you will 

 see that they always take place between two males 

 for the possession of a female ; and between the 

 rounds the temporary victor makes a beauty display 

 for her admiration. A very proud person he looks, 

 too, with brilliant yellow front set off by his richly 

 black-streaked mantle, and contrasting with the bright 

 chestnut above his tail, which also displays to great 

 advantage the white of its outer feathers. From the 

 human point of view, which is over five feet from the 

 ground, the courting yellowhammer may look rather 

 ridiculously like a yellow frog as he hops around, but 

 to the wooed one, who sees him on her own level, he 

 presents, no doubt, a splendid and imposing aspect. 

 And that he is courting there is no doubt, though this 

 would not be the case in autumn if the approaching 



