Notes on Bird Life in Autumn. 135 



his high estate as one ot the birds of the air by a broken wing, 

 and had nothing else to look forward to than spending" the rest 

 of his life on the ground, enduring the increasing cold, and 

 keeping out of the sight of hungry birds and beasts of prey as 

 best he might. Poor Robin, he was perched on a dead branch 

 projecting from a pile of brushwood on the sunny side 

 of when 1 found him, and looked very forlorn and dis- 

 consolate, as well he might. He was comparatively com- 

 fortable then, the day not being very cold, but later, when the 

 keen winds of November would penetrate to even the snuggest 

 nooks and corners of the thickets, this lone waif of the woods 

 might have reason to look even more sorrowful than he did then. 

 I captured him after a long chase, for the instinct of self 

 preservation Was still strong in him despite his hopeless look, 

 and he ran nimbly and well. The large bone of the wing, 

 near the joint where it curves downward, had been broken 

 by birdshot, and for his misfortune there was no cure. 



Another unfortunate that I met with in a late summer's 

 tramp, was a crippled clive-backed thrush, who seemed as far as 

 I could judge to be suffering from paralysis, or some such 

 affliction, the one side of the bird being shrivelled and withered 

 to mere skin and bone while the other was plump and well 

 proportioned, and a post mortem examination revealed not a 

 wound or bruise that might have caused such a condition, not 

 even a feather being out of place ; though his means of loco- 

 motion were confined to one leg and one wing. 



Such a case a this is rare, but most of the birds to be 

 found in the woods at this time of year appear to suffer more 

 or less from the changed conditions of life at this season, and to 

 feel the dreariness of the short days and long cold nights much 

 as we ourselves do. The most cheerful sounds to be heard in 

 the woods at this time of year, are the clear, if somewhat shrill, 

 notes of the woodpeckers, which have in them a suggestion of 



