i88 
NATURE NOTES. 
welcoming me as usual by flying round me twittering, he was 
not to be seen. I called in vain, but the ordinary response did 
not come, searching ever}' part of the room unsuccessfully, when 
to my dismay I found the window had been left open, and I at 
once concluded that he had flown away. Much distressed I 
was on the point of going out of doors to endeavour to find him, 
when happening to stoop down I caught sight of something 
yellow under the seat of a chair, and on going to examine it I 
found Dick hanging like a bat underneath. Directly he saw that 
I had found him, he flew round and round the room twttering 
with the utmost glee. 
On another day an almost exact repetition of the same scene 
took place, and after looking in vain everywhere, including his 
former hiding place, I concluded that this time he had really 
gone out of the window. I was leaving the room when a yellow 
streak, very slightly projecting behind the heavy window curtain, 
arrested my attention. Feeling sure that it was Dick, instead 
of going directly to him I went to the other end of the room, 
calling him repeatedly by name. There was no reply. After I 
thought the time had lasted long enough I went and gently 
pulled back the curtain exposing him to view. When he found 
that he was discovered he flew round the room twittering in his 
usual manner. It was to all intents and purposes a game of 
hide and seek. 
I finally lost him by a painful accident. Left in a room by 
himself, he had evidently lost a grain of hempseed which had 
fallen into a narrow vase. Perched on the rim and endeavour- 
ing to stretch his neck down to it he had overbalanced himself 
and fallen head first down, the narrowness of the vase pinioning 
his wings to his side. He was, of course, soon suffocated. 
H. 
AUTUMN BERRIES. 
When the autumn woods are leafless, and the red sun shines 
through mist. 
When we mourn the death of blossoms that warm zephyrs 
lately kissed. 
Then it is that hedgerow berries in their brightest colours glow. 
Berries which must feed the wild birds through the time of frost 
and snow. 
Scarlet hips on graceful branches, crimson haws on thorny trees. 
With a host of other berries, bright and beautiful as these. 
Deck the country lanes and copses, and make fair each wooded 
glen. 
Every bush a God-given storehouse for the robin and the wren ! 
