The YOUHG HATORAUST: 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History, 



Pakt 106. OCTOBER, 1888. Yol. 9. 



NATURE IN OCTOBER. 



By ALBERT H. WATERS, B.A. 



ANOTHER moon has brought us to October, and a great change is fast 

 corning over the aspect of nature. Gladsome summer with its pro- 

 I fusion of flowers has passed away, and in its stead we have the more sober 

 autumnal season, with its berries, fruits, and seeds. 



The time for our typical ramble shall be a fine day in the early part of the 

 month. The brightly shining sun gives such a cheerful look to things that 

 we might almost fancy ourselves still in summer, but the fading leaves 

 negative the supposition. As we walk along we see several gaily coloured 

 butterflies. Most of them are the common Small Tortoiseshells, but we also 

 see the beautiful Peacock butterflies, named after the ill-fated Io ; and there, 

 on the michselmas daisies in front of that cabbage, we see the scarlet and 

 sable Atalanta. 



The leaves on the hawthorn hedges are fast fading, although the wild plum 

 and crab bushes we see growing in them seem but little changed. Here on 

 this hedge we have found a young larva of the Gold-tailed moth. A little 

 straw-coloured tortrix flies out of the hedge : it is Diciyopteryx contaminana. 

 There are other tortrices out in October : as the variable Sarrothripa reva- 

 yana, whose larvse feed in the early summer between sallow leaves ; the 

 glossy reddish brown Padisca piceana ; the silvery grey heath-loving Chei- 

 matophila mixtana ; the pale green Scotch Oxygrapha literana ; the grey 

 Oxygrapha scabrana, the larva of which was feeding in August between 

 united elm leaves; the very variable Peronea kastiana; the variable Peronea 

 tristana ; the ochreous Peronea mfana ; the common Peronea favillaceana ; 

 the local Peronea maceana ; and the pale brown Peronea umbrana. 



But we must pass on towards yonder wood. As we near it we see the 

 trees all round are putting on their autumn tints, and are resplendent in 



