184 
NATURE NOTES 
bodies.’ No doubt the County Councils could do a great deal more for the 
protection of rare birds, but what is wanted is a Bill to consolidate and amend 
the law. Happily signs are not wanting that a determined effort will be made in 
Parliament to put an end to the absurd anomalies which now exist, and thus 
secure the birds against the inroads of sportsmen and fanciers.” 
THE FALL OF THE LEAF. 
N garden, orchard, field and hedge-row, the spectacle of 
colour displayed by Nature at this season forms by its 
variety one of the most effective scenes in any period 
of the year. The transformation from the fulness and 
richness of summer, with its life and movement, to the niggard- 
liness, solitude, and inactivity of winter has commenced, and 
day by day the wonderful scene is gradually unfolding itself of 
Nature gaily bedecking herself before entering that repose 
which is like unto death. 
The pictures which portray Nature in this garb are good, 
but not one has been painted yet which can present her as one 
can see and feel the full effect of the beauty of the change of the 
leaf under the mellow influence of the sun’s declining rays. 
An interesting feature of English landscape is that the grass 
is generally a bright green in winter, and this has become 
freshened now by the recent rains, which have also raised the 
level of the sinking pits. 
On the hedge-rows the fruit of the very poor — the black- 
berries — still hang in thick clusters from their long trails, with 
green and red fruit intermingled, which will not ripen now as 
the frost has already nipped the berries. Where the fruit has 
been gathered, the holder is shrivelled and the leaves are turning 
a greenish yellow streaked with purple, in which garb there are 
few handsomer leaves. 
In the country there is an old-world legend that when the 
hedge fruit is plentiful it is a prescience of a severe winter, but 
this was not verified last year. Be that as it may, God’s bounty 
for the birds exists in profusion this year. The queen of bird- 
fruits — the handsome scarlet rowan-berries — have long been 
cleared, with the bulk of the black and white elder-berries, which 
are much-beloved by mavis, merle and starling. From the 
aged elder-tree the hazel leaves are falling, whilst a few bunches 
of jet-black berries hang on red stalks, left untouched, out of 
plenitude, by the feathered tribe. 
By the hedge sides a carpet of bronze leaves is being formed. 
The large hawthorn tree will soon be divested of its leaves, 
blushing then in its nakedness, a mass of red berries. The haws 
hang in thick clusters on nearly all the thorns — a vivid scarlet 
framed in a background of green, now gradually changing to a 
lemon colour, dotted with dark specks, indicative of decay. 
