A MELLOW OCTOBER DAY 319 



these curious vegetable growths. The Bedeguar, 

 or Robin's Pincushion, upon the Wild Rose has 

 also been very prolific this season, and I have 

 myself secured some very fine specimens. Having 

 procured one of these pretty fibrous, mosslike 

 excrescences, cut open the gall and within you will 

 find several cells or chambers, each containing a 

 white legless grub, who seems very much discon- 

 certed and upset at such unwarrantable intrusion! 



A Jay went screaming by just now. The rascal ! 

 Perchance he was thinking of the fine time he has 

 had on the Common this past Summer among the 

 Thrushes and Blackbirds. And that reminds me 

 he did not stay his tricks there, but also unwar- 

 rantably interfered with and destroyed a nest of 

 young Nightingales. 



How the mention of the name of that renowned 

 songster calls up memories of the bygone! We 

 hear, as in a dream, its ecstasy of song, the rising 

 and falling, the harsh, the liquid, the soul-inspiring 

 music. We may well feel constrained to say 

 with Miss Marie Corelli, herself a great lover and 

 admirer of Nature : " Hush ! What exquisite 

 far-off floating voice of cheer was that? I raised 

 my head and listened entranced! ' Jug, jug, 

 jug! lodola, lodola! trill-lil-lil ! sweet, sweet, 

 sweet ! ' It was a Nightingale. Familiar, deli- 

 cious, angel-throate3 bird! How I blessed thee 

 in that dark hour of despair! How I praised God 



