1 66 A BIRD CALENDAR 



sprays." In India they enjoy longer lives, and 

 retain their greenness for the greater part of a 

 year. A few Indian trees, as, for example, 

 the shesham, lose their foliage in autumn ; 

 the silk-cotton and the coral trees part with 

 their leaves gradually during the early months 

 of the winter, but these are the exceptions ; 

 nearly all the trees retain their old leaves 

 until the new ones appear in spring, so that, 

 in this country, March, April and May are 

 the months in which the dead leaves lie thick 

 upon the ground. 



In many ways the autumn season in Northern 

 India resembles the English spring. The 

 Indian October may be likened to April in 

 England. Both are months of hope, heralds 

 of the most pleasant period of the year. In 

 both the countryside is fresh and green. In 

 both millions of avian visitors arrive. 



Like the English April, October in Northern 

 India is welcome chiefly for that to which it 

 leads. But it has merits of its own. Is not 

 each of its days cooler than the preceding one ? 

 Does it not produce the joyous morn on which 

 human beings awake to find that the hot 

 weather is a thing of the past ? 



Throughout October the sun's rays are hot, 



