SEPTEMBER 25 



silent, but with a shifting group formation inter- 

 esting to follow. Occasionally a kingfisher still 

 rattles along the river, or one gets a glimpse of a 

 disconsolate flicker, flying from cornfleld to road, 

 with the manners of a culprit. A solitary flicker, 

 with or without the piercing cry, is a common 

 enough figure in the early autumn days, but some- 

 times members of the species gather in flocks at 

 this time of the year. A few years ago, in Sep- 

 tember or possibly in August, near the center of 

 the state, I saw a flock of a hundred or more feed- 

 ing in a level, damp, roadside meadow^, making a 

 memorable picture, and one w4th little or no sug- 

 gestion of autumnal melancholy. 



Cedar Falls, September 26, 1891. 

 By the middle of the month the lessening hours 

 of daylight gave a conspicuous promise of autumn ; 

 earlier and earlier rose the twdlight chorus of the 

 crickets. Practically all the field crops of this 

 richly productive region, in a bountiful year, had 

 been gathered, except the corn and the pumpkins 

 along the corn rows. On the thirteenth a church 

 held its annual harvest service, the pulpit, choir, 

 and walls being decorated with ripe fruits and 

 grains brought in by the farmers of the congrega- 

 tion. That afternoon the birds came eagerly to the 

 bathing dish on our lawn, to a service after their 

 own manner. The English sparrows dashed down 



