174 FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



imitate anything from the mewing of a cat to the 

 creaking of a wheelbarrow. 



The cuckoo made but a short stay with us this 

 year ; he also got completely out of tune, as though 

 he had had enough of it : no doubt he and his mate 

 the wryneck very soon made up their minds to re- 

 visit Africa earlier than usual. 



At this season I generally visit the hedgerows 

 a great deal, for many beautiful things are to be 

 found in or on hedgerows. But this year all is 

 different. The bryony leaves and berries, the wild 

 clematis — the old man's beard of the children — 

 also the beautiful tasselled grasses that rear their 

 heads in moist places, — all these have been blown 

 and threshed and broken into a sodden mass of 

 decaying vegetation. Pickets or sloes, bullaces, 

 the hedgerow - plums, are, we all know, the most 

 hardy of fruits ; but this year I have seen them 

 battered out of shape, killed, in fact, by the fierce 

 hail-storms that have of late hurtled across the 

 country. 



After a course of observation, any one who 

 studies bird life can tell very nearly what weather 

 is coming. Some of the birds that visit us are 



