AUTUMNUL TOUCHES. 
305 
liage, frost does not seem indispensable ; one finds that the leaves 
turn at a certain time, whether we have had frost or not. The 
sino^le trees, or groves, and the borders of a wood, seem to be 
touched first, while the forest generally still preserves its ver- 
dure. The Virginia creepers, whether trained upon our walls, 
hanging about the trees in the woods, or tangling the thickets on 
the banks of the river, are always the first to show their light, 
vivid crimson, among the green of the other foliage. A maple 
here and there generally keeps them company, in scarlet and yel- 
low. 
The pines are thickly hung with dark-brown cones, drooping 
from their higher branches. This is also the moment when their 
old leaves fall, and there is more yellow among their foliage this 
autumn than usual, probably owing to the dry weather we have 
had. Near at hand, these rusty leaves impair their beauty, but 
at a httle distance, they are not observed. The hemlocks effect 
the change in their foliage imperceptibly, at least they seldom at- 
tract attention by it ; nor do their fallen leaves lie in rusty, bar- 
ren patches on the earth, beneath the trees, hke those of the pine. 
Saw a pretty sight : a party of robins ahghted on the topmost 
boughs of a group of young locusts near the house, and sipped 
up the rain-drops gathered on the leaves ; it was pretty to see 
them drinking the delicate drops, one after another. Smaller 
birds joined them — sparrows, probably, and drank also. Birds 
often drink in this way, but one seldom sees a whole flock sipping 
at the same time. It is said that the fine pinnated grouse, now 
becoming a very rare bird in this State, drinks only in this w^ay, 
refusing water from a vessel, or a spring, but eagerly drinking 
when it trickles down in drops. 
