AN OCTOBER DIARY. 839 



many previously had been given it ; and yet, a fast of 

 two weeks seemed to prove no inconvenience. In one 

 instance, it bad a prolonged nip-and-tuck tussle with a 

 great black horse-fly, larger than itself. It ultimately 

 disabled the insect, but failed to accomplish the often- 

 attempted act of swallowing it. A month later, I of- 

 fered this same Hyla another fully as large, but which 

 was deprived of its wings. After many efforts, this 

 wingless fly was partially swallowed, and the Hyla re- 

 mained with widely distended jaws for nearly an hour, 

 when, with one mighty effort, it rejected it, and has not 

 since been disposed to eat other than common house-flies. 

 Never, I believe, has this little fellow " peeped," since I 

 placed him in the case. 



October 17.— 



"A cloudy west and a sunny east, 

 That rouses the bird and sends home the beast," 



fitly describes this morning; and if the couplet quoted 

 is not poetry, it at least has the merit of being true. 

 From dawn to sunrise, and the short twilight, of our 

 October days, is worth more to the naturalist than all 

 the mellow sunshine of the intervening hours. The 

 novelties are only to be seen then, and the best efforts 

 in every direction are far oftener witnessed then than 

 at any other time. Creatures whose presence would be 

 wholly unsuspected, if we were never abroad except 

 hours after sunrise, are often seen in the early dawn ; 

 not so much because these animals prefer this time of 

 day, but because they know that man, their arch-enemy, 

 is less likely to be encountered. One of the most strik- 



