82 AUTUMN NOTES IN IOWA 



Professor Frederick Starr, an enthusiastic yomii^ 

 naturalist from Coe College. The famous Acad- 

 emy of Science here is an interesting place to visit 

 for anyone who cares for natural history. Here 

 at present among other objects can be seen a few 

 live rattlesnakes, the first ones some of us had 

 seen in Iowa, though we were born and had always 

 lived in the state. 



To one living in the central prairie counties, the 

 hills here seem semi-mountainous, and a few days 

 spent partly in climbing them, up and down, 

 brought aching muscles, and a sense of having had 

 quite a novel experience. About the only birds to 

 greet us on this visit were a chickadee, singing his 

 "real song," and a robin volunteering a brisk, 

 merry farewell to the season from the top of a 

 tall poplar. 



Grinnell, October 22, 1886. 



Walked to the woods on the nineteenth and on 

 the twentieth. A few frogs still continue their 

 croaking, which for some reason nearly always 

 gives one a sense of loneliness. Insect life is yet in 

 almost summer richness. The belated sprays of 

 goldenrod are haunted by little greenish beetles, 

 about a quarter of an inch long ; and on one sprig 

 we found a single lytta atrata crawling. On the 

 ground the black carabidae run to cover. One or 

 more of these beetles can often be found under a 

 stone, a piece of lumber or a bit of bark, and they 

 seem abundant till late in the season. Among 



