Birds in Autumn.



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Hill ancl the Beacon. Sweeping' along the line, the eyes perceive

gorse and fern clad slopes, with houses dotted about in places.

Straight in front the top of one hill is covered with pine trees,

whilst lower down is a considerable wood of mixed trees, through

which the high road runs. A few cottages and some large white

houses border the road at intervals, and occasionally vehicles pass

along. To the right, southward, looms the British Camp, square

and angular and entrenched, a grim relic of the days when our

ancestors alternated war with the chase, sometimes for pleasure,

often as a vital necessity of life, to prevent slaughter or enslavement.

From there a number of small hills slope down, through one of

of which, Dog Hill, the railway runs to Ledbury.


About there a huge obelisk stands ever-visible, a monument

to some past Lord Somers.


It is a peaceful scene. The only disturbances it gets are when

a train rushes with roar and rattle between the Malvern and Ledbury

tunnels, and, in autumn and winter, the wild career of hunters and

hounds in pursuit of a fox. For the rest it is quiet enough. The

ill-paid labourer pursues his useful work unobtrusively, and the

great white-faced “ Herefuds ” stand contentedly grazing, or stare

at the passer-by with large, soft, fearless eyes.


About half-a-mile below us stands a church, a gray building

with a square ivy-clad tower, typical of so many in this country.

A few sombre yews and tall elms stand round it. This is the resort

of the rooks. In the elms they have their loosely-built nests, and

at all seasons they wheel round the tower, or perch flapping on its

summit.


In the tower itself a number of jackdaws have taken up

their abode, and can be seen popping in and out through numerous

holes at the top of the tower. In the Spring the noise of the rooks

can be heard for miles. Now in October they are quieter. They

have not the weighty matters of nesting and rearing young to call

forth “ caws,” and food is so plentiful, in the shape of acorns and

refuse from harvest, that they are at peace with themselves and the

world.


The rook is an omnivorous feeder. He is a destroyer of

pests as well as a partaker in what man has grown, ranging over the



