SEPTEMBER. 



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now swerving to the right, now circling round, now closing again, 

 now shooting straight like an arrow, now breaking up in little 

 companies and settling on the ploughed lands in the distance. 

 It is wonderfully interesting to watch from some eminence a 

 flock of birds, and to follow them as far as the eye, or the 

 field glasses, can reach), House Sparrow (in very large flocks 

 now), House Martin, Nuthatch, Greenfinch (about a dozen seen 

 together), Swallow (saw quite a number of these birds and Martins 

 still skimming and hovering over the green meadows. I wonder 

 how much longer they will be with us this year), Chaffinch, and 

 Blackbird. Owing to the blustering winds it was impossible to 

 hear many birds this morning; indeed, bird life was not very evident 



YOUNG ENGLANDERS. 



at all, and we did not ramble through the woods to-day where we 

 generally find the Titmice, Creepers, Woodpeckers, &c.; hence our 

 list is somewhat restricted. 



Grasshoppers still jumping about everywhere. The dark purple 

 leaves of the Dogwood very prominent along the hedgerows. The 

 Acorns are ripe, and are falling rapidly; what striking evidence that 

 Autumn is upon us. The Horse Chestnuts, too, are ripe, and a 

 similar remark applies to them as to the Acorns. 



