SEPTEMBER 183 



readiness to turn to pupae. When the rooks are seen 

 visiting the same meadow day after day and busily 

 pulling up the grass-tufts, it is probable that they are 

 well aware of the feast which is offered. In fact, 

 September spreads a well-filled board for all comers. 

 The wood-pigeons bustle sleepily out of the oaks, 

 so gorged with acorns that they can scarcely fly. 

 For thrush and blackbird, when they have stripped 

 the mountain-ashes, there are the elder-berries. Tits 

 may be seen pecking at the seeds of the sunflower- 

 heads, so attractive, when they have fallen, to the 

 partridges as sometimes to lure these shy birds into 

 country gardens. Nuthatches are most musical and 

 lively, as they vie with the squirrels in despoiling the 

 hazels. Fixing the nut into a crevice of the rough 

 bark, the bird fairly hews out a part of the shell, making 

 a jagged hole through which the kernel is extracted 

 in fragments, the bristles at the end of the tongue 

 forming a useful brush for this purpose. The squirrel's 

 ivory chisels make a far neater job to the same end. 



The calm and mellow days of a sunny September 

 see much insect life upon the wing. Sometimes the 

 air is filled with aphides or " green blight," on their 

 way to seek winter quarters or to lay their eggs before 

 they die. And the swarming of the ants, when 

 myriads of them emerge from the nest to take a single 

 short flight upon gauzy wings, though it frequently 

 takes place earlier in the summer, may be continued 



