Bird Life in October. 



October is the mellow month of fruition, the kindly 

 season when the promises of summer are redeemed 

 in full. How lavishly it strews the ground with the 

 ungarnered harvest of hedge-row and plantation, 

 with horse-chestnuts, beech-mast and acorns, tempt- 

 ing the squirrel to wander far from his accustomed 

 woods into the open. Who does not know the misty 

 morning which brightens into a typical day of October, 

 perfectly still, with an almost imperceptible haze 

 softening every feature of the landscape, — a day of 

 St. Luke's summer, when the bird-cherry flames in 

 the spinney amongst the yellows of birch and hazel, 

 and the last chestnut-leaves fall silently ? The genial 

 warmth of mid-day brings out the bees and butterflies 

 once more ; drone-flies and blue-bottles cluster at the 

 flowering ivy. The pheasants, which have wandered 

 far from cover in search of acorns, lie dusting like 

 fowls on a warm bankside. Under the oaks in the park 

 two fallow stags fight, pushing one another backward 

 with clashing of interlocked horns. Chaffinches sing 

 blithely. Skylarks burst into song, but their flight is 

 shorter and they do not mount so high as in spring. 



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