September 
delight is manifest in every motion and sound. 
But by autumn this has become mellowed into 
quietness and deliberation. Their spirits 
change with the times. In spring the foliage, 
too, comes forth with a bound—a sfv7mg—and 
an entire tree will sometimes be decked with 
verdure or bloom almost ina day. In autumn 
the leaves fall gradually, with a sort of ripe re- 
flection, just as the summer birds steal away a 
few at a time, and we hardly know when they 
are gone; while the migrants from the north 
come in small and straggling flocks, and ina 
few days silently go south. There is no spring- 
ecstasy in the waning year. It is not exactly 
a mood of melancholy ; rather it is like the 
equanimity and repose of maturity. They are 
only short-lived little creatures at the longest, 
and they would burn out quicker than they do, 
if after a period of such intense life and high 
pressure they did not annually bank their fires 
early. 
Another reason for the unsatisfactoriness of 
the fall- passage is the much more limited 
number of species one is likely to see. My 
own record for September is less than half the 
extent of my May list; and while this may not 
be the average proportion for the two months 
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