NOVEMBER. 187 



winter ended the year of life. The courtship of 

 autumn will not reach its legitimate end until the last 

 batch of next summer's curiously scribbled eggs have 

 given place to black-streaked brown youngsters with 

 a tinge of chestnut, very like their mother, and these 

 have flown in turn. When times are hard in winter, 

 the yellowhammers gather with sparrows and finches 

 to find food where they can, but a very little winter 

 sunlight will suffice to set them fighting again ; and 

 early in February you may listen for the simple trill 

 with a catch at the end which tells all whom it may 

 concern that a yellowhammer proposes to set up 

 housekeeping at an early date close to that spot, and 

 if any other yellowhammer has any objections to 

 make will he kindly step forward ? This is the 

 literal interpretation of the song of most birds ; but 

 the life of the year does not necessarily commence in 

 spring merely because most birds then begin to sing. 



THE "HIBERNATING" SWALLOW. 



Perhaps the swallows which return to their homes 

 in spring might be supposed to begin their year then ; 

 but they put on their new clothes in the winter, which 

 they cannot therefore regard as part of the " old " 

 year. And this winter-moult of the swallows, by the 

 way, disposes of the lingering belief of many that 

 they hide in holes and crevices, and spend the cold 

 season in a torpid state. Many such occurrences 

 have been recorded, of cuckoos as well as swallows, 

 by apparently trustworthy witnesses ; but the unfor- 

 tunate thing is that men of science never witness 

 them, nor are proper measures taken at the time to 



