254 Autumn Hunting [FIRST WEEK 



of the meadow bobolinks in the spring, search will now be 

 rewarded only by some plump, overgrown sparrows 

 reedbirds which are really bobolinks in disguise. 



Orchard orioles and rose-breasted grosbeaks come and 

 are welcomed, but the multitude of female birds of these 

 species which appear may astonish one, until he discovers 

 that the young birds, both male and female, are very similar 

 to their mother in colour. We have no difficulty in dis- 

 tinguishing between adult bay-breasted and black poll 

 warblers, but he is indeed a keen observer who can point 

 out which is which when the young birds of the year 

 pass. 



October is apt to be a month of extremes. One day 

 the woods are filled with scores of birds, and on the next 

 hardly one will be seen. Often a single species or family 

 will predominate, and one will remember ' thrush days ' 

 or ' woodpecker days.' Yellow-bellied sapsuckers cross 

 the path, flickers call and hammer in every grove, while 

 in the orchards, and along the old worm-eaten fences, 

 glimpses of red, white, and black show where red-headed 

 woodpeckers are looping from trunk to post. When we 

 listen to the warble of bluebirds, watch the mock courtship 

 of the high-holders, and discover the fall violets under 

 leaves and burrs, for an instant a feeling of spring rushes 

 over us; but the yellow leaves blow against our face, the 

 wind sighs through the cedars, and we realise that the 

 black hand of the frost will soon end the brave efforts of 

 the wild pansies. 



The thrushes, ranking in some ways at the head of all 

 our birds, drift through the woods, brown and silent as 



