176 NATURE'S CALENDAR 



August 4 "I heard a katydid last night," writes 



' Abbott, at Trenton, N. J., "the first of 



those tiresome singers, and, I am told, 

 there will be frost in six weeks. It is 

 certainly appropriate that the frost should 

 begin on so suggestive a date as Septem- 

 ber 2ist — the day when summer really 

 ends. But August suggests the close of 

 the season in other ways: the gathering 

 of the reed -birds in the marshes, the 

 flocking of the blackbirds, the evening 

 roostward flight of the crows, to say 

 nothing of early asters and golden-rod, 

 among flowers that are now blooming 

 along the dingy, dusty roads. I have 

 noticed all these, and some at a much 

 earlier date than the first faint lisping of 

 a timid katydid ; and all such sights and 

 sounds are similarly suggestive — the sum- 

 mer is drawing to its close." 



By midsummer all the fishes of the 

 year have appeared on the middle parts 

 of our coast. Sheepshead, scup (or porgy), 

 sea-bass, and tautog have become numer- 

 ous, to the delight of the anglers, and 

 the salmon are ascending the Maine 

 rivers, while southward the drums, red- 

 fish, and others, are prowling about the 

 estuaries and lagoons, and the Spanish 

 mackerel are breeding in the bays, de- 

 ferring this duty until August in Long 

 Island Sound, and as soon as it is done 

 departing for warmer latitudes. By this 

 time young fishes are crowding all waters. 

 Read Thoreau's long and sympathetic 



