NATURE'S CALENDAR 



September lo 



The northward movement of the birds 

 in spring was discussed in the chapter on 

 May. Now, they having accom.pHshed 

 the domestic duty which led them north, 

 we see or hear them, during all these Sep- 

 tember weeks, hurrying back again to their 

 winter homes in the sunny South. Even 

 before August comes to an end a large 

 part of the resident songsters of the more 

 northerly States have departed, and the 

 September woods would be lifeless, in- 

 deed, were it not for the new arrivals from 

 the North. 



Now snipe, sandpipers, and plovers 

 gather in chattering bands and dart away 

 in the dusk to feeding-grounds not threat- 

 ened by frost; the woodland birds flit 

 cautiously from copse to copse, scudding 

 to shelter as they see following overhead 

 the ominous forms of hawk and owl, or 

 watchful for the weasel and his kin- who 

 fatten upon the moving crowds; ducks 

 and geese cleave their way through the 

 morning air to feeding-places where un- 

 wilted food still awaits them, and the 

 marshes are clouded with vast flocks of 

 blackbirds, swallows, and the like, con- 

 gregating to fly southward in company. 



This gathering into great bands by 

 many birds is one of the features in which 

 the autumnal differs from the vernal move- 

 ment, and nothing is more curious than 

 the behavior of a flock or groups of flocks 

 of redwings, neatly uniformed and sol- 

 dierly, wheeling and advancing in long 



September ii 



