178 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



them while food of all kinds is plentiful and will be so 

 for many weeks to come. 



Now the tits recommence their notes, the thrush 

 begins to sing again and. skylarks soar as blithely as 

 in spring. Thus, in late September, autumn and 

 summer strive for mastery. The sun has not power 

 to dry the dew which lies all day long upon the after- 

 math in sheltered bottoms, while it is still strong enough 

 to tempt out the basking lizard, to set the grasshopper 

 trilling upon a sunny slope and to bring out the late 

 butterflies, admirals and peacocks, which hang 

 balancing upon the scabious heads or hover round 

 the clump of Michaelmas daisies. 



Yet the genial September days when the ivy flowers, 

 providing a honeyed feast for flies and bees innumerable, 

 fail to tempt our summer birds to a longer stay. By 

 far the greater number of them make the Channel 

 passage before the oncoming of the rough weather, 

 which often follows closely on the equinox, though it 

 may be delayed far into the autumn. Quietly they 

 withdraw, and in the greater stir and animation of 

 those birds which winter with us, finding their voices 

 after the moult and coming once more into the open, 

 their going is little marked. One day a chattering or 

 scolding note tells us that the Sedge Warbler is still in 

 its accustomed haunt beside the pond ; the next day 

 we may search the tangle of meadow-sweet and purple 

 loosestrife for it in vain. A Cuckoo, a young bird of 



