It was noticed on the farms about the Chace in the springs of 1878 and 1879 that the corncrakes, which had formerly been so numerous and proclaimed their presence so loudly, were scarcely heard at all.
It is a little outside my subject, since it did not occur in the Chace, but the other day a friend was telling me how he had been hunted by bucks while riding a bicycle.

He was passing through a forest in the summer, when he suddenly became aware of six or seven bucks coming down a glade after him.

The track being rough he could not ride at full speed--probably they would have outstripped him even if he had been able to do so--and they were overtaking him rapidly.

As they came up he saw that they meant mischief, and fearing a bad fall he alighted by a tree, behind which he thought to dodge them.

But no sooner did he touch the ground than the bucks so furiously rushing after him stopped dead in their career; he stepped towards them, and directly they saw him walking they retreated hastily to a distance.
The first berries to go as the autumn approaches are those of the mountain-ash.