finest effects of the changing tints of
foliage; after a wet, windy summer the colours are poor, but fine and
varied after dry calm weather.

These autumnal changes of colour are caused by decay and death; the life
in the leaf enabled it to withstand certain chemical changes, which it
can no longer resist as the vital force wanes, and the green colouring
matter is either changed or destroyed.

We can prove this fact for ourselves if we notice how often, while all
the rest of a tree is green, the leaves and small branches which are
partly broken, and have, therefore, lost a great part of their vitality,
lose their green colour, and become yellow or red.

* * * * *

Not only are the broad effects of a landscape made beautiful in autumn
by the rich colouring of large masses of trees, but the close observer
will find every hedge, bottom, and wild common flaming with colour.
Heath tell us "it is the commonest plants whose colours are the most
beautiful and striking." Amongst those which produce the most brilliant
autumnal tints, the following are found almost everywhere in the hedges
in England: Bramble, hawthorn, wild strawberry, dock, spindle-tree, herb
robert, cranes-bill, silver weed, hedge maple, dogwood, black bryony,
ivy; while in the kitchen gardens nothing can exceed the beauty of the
asparagus and the common carrot.

* * * * *

Many birds come to England from the north to spend the winter. Wild
ducks, woodcocks, fieldfares, and curlews are coming now, besides
thrushes, larks, and other small birds. Some of these live with us all
through the year, and are only joined by relatives from colder climates.
In very cold winters many birds who do not usually migrate, are driven
south in search of food; but the reception they meet with is hardly
calculated to attract great numbers of strangers to our shores; for the
notice one usually reads in the newspapers is that such and such a rare
bird "has been seen and _shot_."

* * * * *

"It is as hot as we have it in India, or, at any rate, I feel the heat
as much." One often hears this statement on a hot summer's day from an
Indian visitor; while, on the other hand, our Canadian cousins assure us
that their bright, clear winter, though so intensely cold, is not so
trying as ours. This is to a great extent caused by the unusual moisture
of the air in England. John Burroughs tell