of the
sugar-cane begins in earnest. The little presses that for eight months
have been idle are once again brought into use, and, from mid-November
until the end of January, the patient village oxen work them, tramping
in circles almost without interruption throughout the short hours of
daylight.

The custard-apples are ripening; the cork trees are white with pendent
jasmine-like flowers, and the loquat trees--the happy hunting ground
of flocks of blithe little white-eyes--put forth their inconspicuous
but strongly scented blossoms. Gay chrysanthemums are the most
conspicuous feature of the garden. The shesham and the silk-cotton
trees are fast losing their leaves, but all the other trees are
covered with foliage.

The birds revel, like man, in the perfect conditions afforded by the
Indian winter; indeed, the fowls of the air are affected by climate to
a greater extent than man is.

Those that winter in England suffer considerable hardship and
privation, while those that spend the cold weather in India enjoy life
to the uttermost.

Consider the birds, how they fare on a winter's day in England when
there is a foot of snow lying on the ground and the keen east wind
whistles through the branches of the trees. In the lee of brick walls,
hayricks and thick hedges groups of disconsolate birds stand, seeking
some shelter from the piercing wind. The hawthorn berries have all
been eaten. Insect food there is none; it is only in the summer time
that the comfortable hum of insects is heard in England. Thus the
ordinary food supply of the fowls of the air is greatly restricted,
and scores of field-fares and other birds die of starvation. The
snow-covered lawn in front of every house, of which the inmates are in
the habit of feeding the birds, is the resort of many feathered
things. Along with the robins and sparrows--habitual recipients of the
alms of man--are blackbirds, thrushes, tits, starlings, chaffinches,
rooks, jackdaws and others, which in fair weather avoid, or scorn to
notice, man. These have become tamed by the cold, and, they stand on
the snow, cold, forlorn and half-starved--a miserable company of
supplicants for food. Throughout the short cold winter days scarcely a
bird note is heard; the fowls of the air are in no mood for song.

Contrast the behaviour of the birds on a winter's day in India. In
every garden scores of them lead a joyful existence. Little flocks of
minivets display their painted wings as th