oy longer lives, and retain their greenness for the
greater part of a year. A few Indian trees, as, for example, the
shesham, lose their foliage in autumn; the silk-cotton and the coral
trees part with their leaves gradually during the early months of the
winter, but these are the exceptions; nearly all the trees retain
their old leaves until the new ones appear in spring, so that, in this
country, March, April and May are the months in which the dead leaves
lie thick upon the ground.

In many ways the autumn season in Northern India resembles the English
spring. The Indian October may be likened to April in England. Both
are months of hope, heralds of the most pleasant period of the year.
In both the countryside is fresh and green. In both millions of avian
visitors arrive.

Like the English April, October in Northern India is welcome chiefly
for that to which it leads. But it has merits of its own. Is not each
of its days cooler than the preceding one? Does it not produce the
joyous morn on which human beings awake to find that the hot weather
is a thing of the past?

Throughout October the sun's rays are hot, but, for an hour or two
after dawn, especially in the latter half of the month, the climate
leaves little to be desired. An outing in the early morning is a thing
of joy, if it be taken while yet the air retains the freshness
imparted to it by the night, and before the grass has yielded up the
sparkling jewels acquired during the hours of darkness. It is good to
ride forth on an October morn with the object of renewing acquaintance
with nimble wagtails, sprightly redstarts, stately demoiselle cranes
and other newly-returned migrants. In addition to meeting many winter
visitors, the rider may, if he be fortunate, come upon a colony of
sand-martins that has begun nesting operations.

The husbandman enjoys very little leisure at this season of the year.
From dawn till sunset he ploughs, or sows, or reaps, or threshes, or
winnows.

The early-sown rice yields the first-fruits of the _kharif_ harvest.
By the end of the month it has disappeared before the sickle and many
of the fields occupied by it have been sown with gram. The hemp
(_san_) is the next crop to mature. In some parts of Northern India
its vivid yellow flowers are the most conspicuous feature of the
autumn landscape. They are as brilliantly coloured as broom. The _san_
plant is not allowed to display its gilded blooms for long, it is cut
down in t