29 SEPTEMBER 1928, Page 13

A ROBIN'S COMPLIMENT.

The best compliment I have seen paid to this adorable autumn of ours came from a robin. One of a pair was seen carrying nesting material to a favourite stump in the garden in the third week of September ! I once found a completed nest with one egg in the first week of January ; so we may say that the robin may be concerned with family affairs during nine months of the year. Their songs have been singularly vigorous and constant this autumn. What with

their little soprano bouts of song from sunrise to sunset,

with the twittering of martins and swallows, still reluctant to depart, the chatter of blackbirds before going to roosting, the hoot of the owls night long, one might imagine oneself in the lap of spring.

W. BEACH THOMAS.