1 68 A BIRD CALENDAR 



the most conspicuous feature of the autumn 

 landscape. They are as brilliantly coloured 

 as broom. The san plant is not allowed to 

 display its gilded blooms for long, it is cut 

 down in the prime of life and cast into a 

 village pond, there to soak. The harvesting 

 of the various millets, the picking of the cotton, 

 and the sowing of the wheat, barley, gram 

 and poppy begin before the close of the 

 month. The sugar-cane, the arhar and the 

 late-sown rice are not yet ready for the 

 sickle. Those crops will be cut in November 

 and December. 



As in September so in October the birds 

 are less vociferous than they were in the 

 spring and the hot weather. During the 

 earlier part of the month the notes of the 

 koel and the brain-fever bird are heard on rare 

 occasions ; before October has given place to 

 November, these noisy birds cease to trouble. 

 The pied starlings have become comparatively 

 subdued, their joyful melody is no longer a 

 notable feature of the avian chorus. In the 

 first half of the month the green barbets utter 

 their familiar cries at frequent intervals ; as 

 the weather grows colder they call less often, 

 but at no season of the year do they cease 



