202 
NATURE NOTES. 
take them home is almost irresistible. The elms frequently 
grow yellow branch by branch, — one often sees one golden 
branch, whilst all the others on the tree are still green. The 
ash is amongst the latest trees to burst into leaf in the spring, 
and is one of the earliest to shed them in the autumn. The 
leaves fall green. The beech is none the less glorious in its 
autumnal garb than at other times in the year. Its rich orange 
is very striking, especially in woods, where many grow together. 
The mast forms an attraction for the squirrels and dormice. 
These little creatures are very busy, adding to their already 
large stores of nuts and fruits, for winter use. Their appetites 
increase, too, at this time of the year. They put on fat fast, 
and grow beautiful coats of fur, to keep them warm during their 
long hibernation. Squirrels eat largely of fungi, which abound 
in the woods now, and their teeth-marks can often be seen on 
them. Where the woods come down to the stubble fields, the 
pheasants will go to pick up any stray grains which they can 
find. They keep out until dusk, but return at sundown to 
their accustomed roosting places. 
In the lanes they frequently rise as you approach, with much 
flapping of wings, and fly off with rather a heavy flight, some- 
times rising high over the tops of the trees. They spread their 
tail when they rise like a huge fan. Rabbits hop leisurely across 
the path by dozens, in the evening, on their way to their feeding 
rounds in the meadows below. Their white tails can be made 
out when it is too dusk to see them, themselves. 
The wood-pigeons are in the fields all day now ; they grow 
fat on the farmer’s turnips, but their flesh is not improved for 
eating by this. In the evening they return to the trees ; they 
are very watchful, and rise at the approach of a stranger with 
much commotion, breaking off the little twigs with their wings. 
There still remain some late blackberries, ripe, and ready to 
drop. The brambles are a pretty sight, with their red, green 
and yellow leaves, and black fruit. Here some wasps still 
resort, they eat their way quite into the berries, as fair gatherers 
sometimes find to their cost. But they are getting clumsy and 
drowsy, and are no longer the fierce busy insects of the early 
summer. Then they were continually passing to and fro 
between the hole in the bank and the rotten posts in the fence, 
carrying bundles of wood fibre for the construction of their 
nests ; now at times they hardly seem able to fly at all, and will 
soon die, as countless thousands of wasps have done at the 
approach of winter for thousands of years past. 
So we will not kill them before their time nor grumble at 
them for taking their share of tlie fruit, and if we do not molest 
them we shall find that they have far too much to do to go out 
of their way to annoy us, and by helping to destroy some of the 
many flies which swarm in our houses in the summer, they will 
repay us for our good will. 
Butterflies are scarce now. A few Brimstones and Tortoise- 
