LEAF AND HIBERNATION 275 



beech and hornbeam and oak cling to the faded leaf 

 throughout the winter months, they have usually been 

 compelled to that habit by artificial treatment or morbid 

 health. It is the clipped and bullied hedge that mimics the 

 evergreen. Half the charm and fertility of our temperate 

 clime lies in the fall of the leaf, as many animus know. 



It has been said of the oak that it supports more various 

 life than any other tree. Among its commonest guests are 

 flies that sting its leaves, to the end of making a nest for 

 the eggs, and if you take a score of oak leaves you may 

 find ten of them decorated with little discs. They repre 

 sent a harvest. At this season you will find among the 

 circles of leaves beneath the oaks more birds than at any 

 time, and, indeed, more other animals. The pheasants 

 and the pigs (especially in the New Forest) are the biggest 

 and most obvious ; and it is generally supposed that the 

 pheasants scratch for the same reason that the pigs 

 rootle ; they seek acorns ; and the number they and the 

 pigeons can accommodate in their distended crops is 

 scarcely credible ; but even these big birds seek the food 

 on the leaf as well as the fruit. And those quaint discs on 

 the back of the oak leaves (one of the greatest curiosities 

 of natural history) will harbour the eggs till spring comes ; 

 and, indeed, the harvest of the leaves is very much 

 greater than the harvest of the acorns. 



A leaf-strewn surface is a melancholy site, especially 

 beneath an ash, whose leaves fall green, a loss that would 

 damage the vitality of other more economical trees. 

 A musty charnel scent hangs in the mist, of the earth 

 earthy. Earthworms, never so active as now, pull into 

 their subterranean holes more leaves than all the voles 

 and hedgehogs, and block the openings with the stalks. 

 We think of decay : &quot; The woods decay, the woods 

 decay and fall/ but if you wish to see the full brightness 



