SEPTEMBER 

+ ITH September begins the first move- 
2 ment of ebb-tide, made apparent 
it partly by the complete disappear- 
fs ance of a few species of birds, but 
still more by the gradual gathering of the gre- 
garious varieties into large flocks, to wander 
hither and thither until the full time for mi- 
gration arrives. 
Almost the first species that we lose sight of 
is the summer yellow bird, which leaves very 
promptly at the beginning of the month, its 
departure the more evident because it is so 
ubiquitous through the summer. The crow- 
blackbirds—the vampires of the Park—disap- 
peared at the same time, not so tender, how- 
ever, as to be frightened away by the first 
autumn chill, like the yellow warbler, for they 
are among the first to arrive in early spring, 
and are tough birds in every sense; but from 
now until late in the fall, when they retire to 
the South, they are gathered in even larger 
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