270 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



There are rural sounds as well as rural sights which 

 are characteristic of this and every other month of the 

 year. The piping of the frogs in spring, the warbling 

 of birds in the early summer, and the chirping of insects 

 in the latter summer and the early autumn, are all asso 

 ciated with the beauties and the bounties of their re 

 spective seasons. The chirping of insects declines dur 

 ing October, and dies away to silence by the middle of 

 the present month ; and then do the voices of the 

 winter birds become more audible in their woodland 

 solitudes. Their harsh, unmusical voices harmonize 

 not unpleasantly with the murmuring of wintry winds, 

 and with the desolate appearance of nature. The 

 water birds assemble in large flocks upon the lakes and 

 in the harbors, and become peculiarly loquacious ; and 

 pccasionally on still evenings, we hear the cackling 

 flight of geese, as they are proceeding aloft in the 

 heavens to the places of their hyemal abode. These 

 different sounds, though unmusical and melancholy, 

 awaken many pleasing recollections of past years, and 

 are not unattended with emotions of tranquillizing 

 pleasure. 



No person, who visits the fields at the present time, 

 can fail to perceive the change that has taken place in 

 the perfumes of the air, since the leaves began to fall. 

 There is no fragrance of blooming gardens, of flowering 

 meads, or sweet-scented groves. The very grass, if per 

 chance a late crop has been mowed by the husbandman, 

 sends out a different fragrance from that of haying-time. 

 The flowers of autumn are generally almost scentless ; 

 but there is a pleasant odor arising from the fallen 

 leaves, when the sun is drying up the frost, which the 

 preceding night had deposited on them, unlike any 

 thing else in nature. We perceive also the scents of 



