290 



NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



is August. All day this culony of swallows played about, 

 sometimes the menibers dispersing and again assembling; 

 but the next day, the storm having cleared, I discovered that 

 all these birds had left the locality. What a reminder this is 

 of the api)roacliing fall. JJut only on a rainy day like the one 

 I have described have I had the good fortune to \'iew some of 

 these habits of animal life, stimulated into activity by the 

 humid conditions of the atniosjihcre. 



Pasture and Meadow Insects in August 



abandoned 

 katvdids and 



ilE middle of August finds the 

 nymphs of hordes of grass- 

 hop])ers throwing off their last 

 skins. Then the meadows and 

 pastures are alive with adult 

 other forms that enliven the 

 scene. IJefore us is a grassy pasture, rich in blue 

 lolielia, boneset, sedges, ragweed, vervain, pearly exerlasting, 

 and horseweed, to say nothing of the other less consiiicuous 

 members of the flowering ])lants. Bees are busy ^•isiting 

 the blue lobelia blossoms, and the air is scarcely .silent for a 

 moment from the humming of their wings. The clattering 

 notes of the varied-winged locusts, Arphia xanthoptera, indi- 

 cate almost in themselves the kind of ground one is visiting. 

 The flashes of red or yellow from this locust's wings when 

 flying are momentary delights. It is now between ten and 

 eleven o'clock in the forenoon, under a hot sun, yet one is 

 well repaid to wind his way leisurely across such a busy spot. 



