AMONG THE BIRDS IN AUTUMN. 171 



and though they seem more in place above the 

 buttercups and daisies, primroses and daffodils of 

 spring, they are none the less welcome when 

 carolled forth high up in the fresh autumn air 

 over the browns and yellows and purples of the 

 dying year. The Skylark becomes gregarious in J^ s J 

 early autumn, and continues to live in flocks right October. 

 through the winter. These flocks are greatly 

 attached to certain localities, and will frequent 

 a suitable field for months stubbles, which have 

 been sown down with clover, and coarse, weedy 

 pastures having the preference. 



Throughout the autumn months, birds are 

 constantly shifting their ground seeking out 

 suitable retreats for the coming winter. The 

 moorlands and the mountains are almost deserted ; 

 the birds which have bred on these high grounds 

 during the summer, retire to the coasts, the more 

 sheltered country, and the lower valleys. The 

 Meadow Pipits now leave the moors and visit ^ t 

 the fields and manure-heaps of the cultivated t i st i owlands 

 districts ; the Linnets, the Twites, and the Gray Septemben 

 Wagtails forsake the gorse, the heather, and the 

 mountain trout-streams, and frequent the fields 

 and the lower reaches of the rivers. The Curlews, 

 the Plovers, and other water-fowl, have sped to 

 the coasts. The Ring Ousel, after staying as loner Rin s o us < 



. / S & leave, i 5 th 



as the mountain fruits lasted, has left the more ctober - 

 northern moors, staying a few days on the smaller 

 southern heaths, such as Dartmoor, but all uneasy 

 to be off back to its winter quarters. Many birds 



