244 THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



strange autumnal flights of certain beetles and moths, 

 the deer leave the heights for the low ground, and the 

 Greenland seal comes as far south as Scotland. Man 

 himself feels it, for many pilgrims at this season journey 

 southward " to warmer lands and coasts that keep 

 the sun." Some, we think, feel it strongly, perhaps in 

 deep organic reminiscence of ancestors who were wont 

 in Autumn to drive their herds to Winter quarters, or 

 launched their boats and made for the northern fiords to 

 reap their Winter harvest from the teeming waters. At 

 this season we have known one to walk miles, day after 

 day, simply to see the ships sailing out of the harbour, 

 and he could give no reason for the restlessness which 

 urged him. We can well believe that a habit begun, not 

 coercively from without, but as the expression of a con- 

 stitutional responsiveness to seasonal changes, might find 

 organic registration. 



Most sensitive of all creatures to the breath of approach- 

 ing Winter which they never face and to hints of 

 scarcity, are the birds whose presence made the Summer 

 glad. Many are already gone, for the tide turned in 

 Midsummer ; " the last spent pulses of the great vernal 

 wave of migration have scarcely ceased to flow, before 

 the first ripples of the Autumn tide begin to be apparent/' 

 Many have slipped away, singly or in pairs, without a 

 good-bye ; others are still making up their minds, making 

 many " last appearances/' telling us excitedly day after 

 day, " We are going, we are going." 



That they should go we do not wonder, for the leaves 

 are fallen from around their old shelters, the fruits have 

 been gathered or scattered, the seeds are sown, most 

 insects are dead or in safe resting-places, the daylight is 

 short for picking up the scraps of life that remain within 

 reach, it is becoming colder every week. We draw our 



