IN SEPTEMBER. 259 



ting twenty-two days, and the young coming forth 

 full feathered, like chickens. When the young ones 

 are attacked, the old ones exhibit wonderful instan- 

 ces of attachment, and even feign being wounded, 

 to draw off the pursuers from the nest. They re- 

 tire to the groves in the day time, to the open stubble 

 in the night; and, when man begins his 



" Falsely cheerful barbarous game of death," 



he obliges them, by pointers, to take wing, for the 

 purpose of shooting them, or enclosing them in a net, 

 when they remain on the ground ; and it is highly 

 admirable to observe 



" How, in his mid-career, the spaniel, struck 

 Stiff by the tainted itale, with open nose, 

 Outstretch'd and cautious, on the latent prey j 

 As in the sun the circling covey bask 

 Their varied plumes, and, watchful every way, 

 Thro' the rough stubble turn the secret eye." 



In this month the snake casts his skin, parting by 

 rolling itself in the grass, with its whole external 

 cover ; even the outer coat of the eyes scale off, 

 and is left in the head of the slough like a pair of 

 spectacles. 



Hazel nuts are now gathered in our thickets and 

 gardens in this month. The oak sheds its acorns, 

 and the nuts fall from the beech, both of which are 

 called mast. 



The autumnal equinox, when day and night are 

 again equal over the whole globe, happens about the 



