198 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



But there comes a night of storm, sometimes a notable 

 gale, which leaves its traces for years in the shape of 

 jagged stumps and uprooted trees. At daybreak the 

 mistle-thrush flings a few wild strains from the top- 

 most elm bough. Overhead, before the wind which 

 scatters " the flying gold of the ruined woodlands," 

 drift the first Redwings and Fieldfares, and the sports- 

 man who is afoot betimes will find the first Woodcock 

 at the usual spot in the dingle where the hollies shelter 

 the moist ground round the spring-head. Autumn 

 has come in with " a noise of rooks," tumbled and 

 flustered by gust and eddy. Such are„ two aspects 

 of the month when summer and autumn overlap, for 

 the redwings are sometimes here before the last 

 swallows have departed. In chalk and limestone 

 districts the land-drains, dry all the summer, now 

 run again. " The autumn's leafy spoils lie strewn the 

 forest glades along," giving to the air that ripe October 

 flavour, as of leaf-mould in the making, which is char- 

 acteristic of English woodlands and which we miss 

 in drier climates. Now in copse and spinney the 

 fungi are at their best ; groups of white agarics, like 

 delicate flowers on their slender stalks, cluster round 

 the hazel-stools. The summer birds which have 

 lingered latest now leave us, to be replaced by 

 hardier invaders from over the northern sea. And 

 our resident birds settle down into the mode of life 

 which they will pursue through the winter, and 



