NOVEMBER 225 



surroundings. Alighting on the top of a stake, it 

 drops into the water with an audible plunge to seize 

 a minnow. The yellow breast of a Grey Wagtail, 

 wading daintily amongst the cresses, makes another 

 spot of colour. With harsh "giach, giach," a Snipe 

 rises from a patch of rushes. Lower down, before it 

 enters the pool, the stream loses itself for a time in a 

 small boggy copse, where the alders stand amongst 

 miry pools, upon whose borders earlier in the year 

 marsh-marigolds — the king-cups of our childhood's 

 days — shine like fire. There are small birds in the 

 tops of the alders, clinging tit-like as they extract the 

 seed from the cones, the process causing a tiny rattling 

 noise, just loud enough to be heard. But they are not 

 tits, for the glass shows here the gold-banded wing and 

 green breast of a cock Siskin, and there the crimson- 

 dyed frontlet of a Redpoll. Mixed bands of these two 

 small finches may always be seen at this time of the 

 year amongst the alders and birches, which they only 

 desert when the seed has fallen ; and a few minutes 

 spent in watching their active and lively proceedings 

 will not be thrown away. 



By the end of November the arrival of northern 

 birds is practically completed. Visitors to the south 

 coast may sometimes see the Black Redstart, which 

 every autumn arrives in small numbers from the 

 Continent to spend the winter in sunny nooks amongst 

 the cliffs of Cornwall and South Devon, though it is 



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