AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 136099, 25 April 1908, Page 6

AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON.

(By Caxtekbckt.)

It was another instance of good intontione unfulfilled. The day had been begun by a vigorous attack on a goree fence, which had for long shamed mc in the eyes of my neighbours, but the hounds had met their followers a few miles away, and in the still autumn air they couid be heard running full-cry. At throe o'clock it was too iaie to go in search of tbeiUj but the hound music bad banished tno alreauy laiui desiro vo cut more gors-e, so, laaling better amusement, 1 ux>k a g-in and a green apple 1 thougut was npo, and went out across the helds for a walk.

A short cut kd uro over a small farm, tlio dilapidated appearance oi which appealed U) my mooti of tiio ii;;..i)i'ut, anil i looked round for a seat o.i a gal*, whence 1 ir;ii£>!h<t oon-U.-iuplate iho choorlotis prospect. Tuere wero live couuaiiiiiisg nturly twenty uui'tu oucn oi stony lun<t; doueu with rough h'-'ttps oi btonw wliieii bore witness to ii luule attempt to better tbiiiipj, that had prolxibjy broken a former owner's heart, and though, \nshhil 10 aiit down, I sought dofiagontly tkwo wat* not sutJi an aruc.o Ui> v tju..». on the property. Openings in tno fences, witn an old liiiiye-pcwt or bar lying at the side, provui tuat tiiey had oiiw! existed, Out uieir place had been taken by bit* oi board, a baiucu or two, and pieces of dry yorse, nil arranges in nU-cii a iatJikm Uiat any aiiimai anxioils to puss mrouyh not be inconvenienced. Alany of the fencing pcvjts, rotlod near the ground, were on wir«s laced so frequently tiiui one would have tnougnt it cneaper to erect a new fence. A solitary corn staeii presumably Jiedd the harvest of a good-c.izoJ. neid, l>ut a nock 01 auoui a nundred sheep seemed he and lat, and conveyed uio idea that all was not lost. JNotxxiy appeared to live tiieio, in tact the state 01 the put this out of tne question; Uie dooxv. iiad followed tfre gates., and th-e roof f»ad gone ainer the <Jooib. A black cat wav watching in tue inner space, but she disappeaieu througn what uad been a winaovv, ana not liKiug to be aione amid so great a dcsoUiuoii, 1 came away.

Crossing the boumlaxy fenoe on to the next la-rru, a line nare jumped up out of some thick ry«-gnu» u> uu bowled over by uh© second barrel, and then., in ike ab,»eu-ee of a game-bag, the problem arose how to curry her. liio o.vuar o-i Lu-e farm suggested! a piece of wire run through all foui legs, but it was not a comfortable method of carrying hares, and when i skoi another on a strip of fallow just oftorwerd I was really grateful to my frieud far accepting it. He told mc thai; his cook generally half-boiled them in milk, and' then roasted them, which eeetns rather a queor way of preparing hares for table-, but, I have no doubt it is c good one. Another, piece of hi--information was that the present season ia one of the wora-t. on reco/d tor ui- ,- nips in South Canterbury. This wa. not "quite news to mo, for I havo seen many fields of them with yellow and decaying leaves, and if one is unlucky enough to bo to leoward of euch a crop the smell is not thet of roses, or even lavonder.

On the way home I passed a long plantation which the starling hav<' chosen as a roosting place. Th"oy eeem to keep to one corner of the wood where the trees are rather higher and thicker than the rest, and aTo rapidly spoiling it. Small flocks were constantly arriving from two directions, as if tfoev wore following well-known road? through tho air, and' a nuiltitndo of birds chattered among the branches or circled in j?hort flights above the trees. A shot I fired, to soo how many were really there, caused a dead silence for a. fraction of a second, t-hen. with n noise like a train crossing a bridge the whole- body took wing and—well,'l had no idea that so many starlings lived in New Zealand. The best way to get rid of these birds when their presence is urd«=irnMe. k to lisht smoky fires to windward of tho wood at roostingtime. and keep them going for eoveral evenings in succession.