viii CONTENTS 



FAOES 



owls and Ditchling Church — Shingled spires — Pleasure of 

 finding churches open — A strange memorial in a, downland 

 church — A nap in West Firle churchjard — Slow-worms in 

 churchyards — Increase of swallows at Ditchling — House- 

 martins on telegraph wires — The telegraph a benefit to birds 

 — Telegraph poles in the landscape — Sound of telegraph wires 

 — A cockney's bird-lore — A Sussex man on swifts— Swifts 

 rising from a flat surface — The swift mystery — Swifts at 

 Seaford — A Somerset bird-boy's strange story. 



CHAPTER XI 



AUTUMN . . . ... 205-216 



Suddenness of the change from summer to autumn on the 

 downs— Birds in autumn — Meadow-pipits — Shore birds on the 

 hills— September flowers — Remnant of insect-life — Effect of 

 rough weather — Effect on the mind of the cessation of life — 

 Man's long life — An immortal surveying the insect tribes 

 of human kind — The prospect from the hills — Pleasure of 

 walking. 



CHAPTER XII 



WEST OF THE ADUR . ... 217-237 



Autumn on the west downs — Abundance of birds— Village 

 of Cocking — Drayton's Polyolbion — A company of magpies; 

 their inconsequent behaviour — Magpie and domestic pigeon 

 — Story of a pet magpie — Blackberries on the downs— Elder- 

 berries — Tews at Kingly Bottom — A tradition — Yew-berries 

 and the missel-thrushes' orgie — Hawthorn wood — Charm of 

 the thorn-tree — Beeches on the west downs — Effect of trees 

 on the South Downs — Gilpin's strictures answered — Charac- 

 teristic trees and bushes — Juniper — A curious effect — 

 Character of the juniper-tree. 



CHAPTER XIII 

 THE MARITIME DISTRICT 238-255 



The autumnal movement of birds — Linnets on the downs 

 — Birds wintering in the maritime district — Character of the 

 district — Birdham — Rooks and starlings — Skylarks and finches 

 — Dunnock and wren — Peewits on the Cuckmere — Pee- 



