850 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



habits show a marked degree of cunning, and I have no 

 hesitation in placing them on a level with ants in the 

 scale of intelligence. 



The evening was very warm, and the full tide of in- 

 sect-life common to August appears to have wholly re- 

 vived. The flies and the frost play such remarkable 

 tricks with our theories that, before a new idea can be 

 formulated, the frost or the flies upsets our preconcep- 

 tion. 



October 22. — No fog, save scattered remnants of the 

 veil of mist that yesterday draped the meadows. Every 

 indication is that of a warm south rain ; and this usu- 

 ally does not introduce a cold wave, such as is still re- 

 ported to be coming. The crows fly low, and this is a 

 sign of rain. How strange it is, that men otherwise in- 

 telligent should believe such nonsensical sayings. Cer- 

 tainly more than half the time crows fly very near the 

 ground, a few feet above the level of the fields, and just 

 skimming the tree-tops. All through a drought of five 

 weeks they flew as low to the ground as I ever knew 

 them to ; and so it is all winter, stormy or clear, mod- 

 erate or cold, quiet or windy ; but the facts have no 

 value in the sight of my neighbors. What they have 

 always heard they always believe; and one proclaimed 

 to the audience, at the close of a lecture, as a settler to 

 my " newfangled notions," that "as these sayings orig- 

 inated in the good old times, none of 'em could be 

 Ja6?." I was about to reply, when he closed the dis- 

 cussion prematurely by adding that "these science 



