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places. The common burs are examples of this contrivance. Several when ripe are thrown out with considerable force from their receptacle by means of a strong spiral elastic spring, of which the impatiens, or touch-me-not, and all the species of cardamine, or cuckoo-flower, are instances. Many are contained in berries, which being eaten by birds, the seeds are discharged again uninjured, and grow wherever they happen to light. Thus has nature carefully provided for the propagation and wide distribution of her vegetable offspring.

The gloom of the declining year is, however, during this month, enlivened by the variety of rich and bright colours exhibited by the fading leaves of shrubs and trees. So varied and glowing, indeed, are the tints, so harmonious their combinations, so exquisitely tender and soothing the emotions that they give birth to, as to render our autumnal scenery, both to the painter and man of sentiment, more interesting than the blossoms of spring or the radiance and verdure of summer.

Those virgin leaves, of purest vivid green,

Which charm'd ere yet they trembled on the trees,
Now cheer the sober landscape in decay:

The lime first fading; and the golden birch,
With bark of silver hue; the moss-grown oak,
Tenacious of its leaves of russet brown;

Th' ensanguined dogwood; and a thousand tints
Which Flora, dress'd in all her pride of bloom,
Could scarcely equal, decorate the groves.

To these fugitive colours are added the more durable ones of ripened berries, a variety of which now adorn our hedges. Among these are particularly distinguished the hip, the fruit of the wild rose; the haw, of the hawthorn; the sloe, of the blackthorn; the blackberry, of the bramble; and the berries of the bryony, privet, honeysuckle, elder, holly, and woody night-shade. These are a valuable supply for the birds during the cold weather; and it is said, on the authority of Lord Bacon, that they are most plentiful when the ensuing winter is to be most severe.

The common martin, the nests of which, hung under the eaves of our houses, afford so ageeeable a spectacle of

MIGRATORY BIRDS.

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parental fondness and assiduity, after having reared its second brood, disappears about the middle of October; and in a few days after, its example is followed by the sand-martin, the smallest kind of swallow, as well as the latest in its migration.

The royston or hooded crow, which breeds in Scotland and other northern regions, migrates to the southern districts of this island, being forced by the snow from its native haunts. It is readily distinguished by its ash-coloured back, and black head. Next to the raven it is the most destructive bird of its genus that is known in this country, destroying lambs and young partridges, and moor-fowl, and picking out the eyes of horses that happen to be entangled in bogs; on which account, in several parts of Scotland, it is proscribed, and a reward offered for its head. The woodcock about this time begins to be found on our eastern coasts, though the main body of them does not arrive till November or December. Various kinds of water-fowl arrive from their arctic summer-residence in search of a more temperate winter on the shores of Britain. About the middle of the month, wild geese quit the fens, and go up to the rye lands, where they devour the young corn.

It is curious and highly amusing to observe the evening proceedings of the rooks at this period of the year. Just before dusk, returning from the foraging excursions of the day, before they betake themselves to roost in their nest trees, they congregate in large numbers, and wheeling round in the air, sport and dive in a playful manner, all the while exerting their voices, and making a loud cawing, which being blended and softened by distance, becomes a pleasing murmur, not unlike the cry of a pack of hounds in a deep hollow wood, or the tumbling of the tide on a pebbly shore. Stares begin to congregate about this time, assembling in the fen countries in such vast multitudes as to destroy by their weight the reeds on which they perch, to the damage of the farmers, who derive no inconsiderable profit from the sale of the reeds, which for thatching, are superior to every other material.

The weather during this month is sometimes extremely misty, with a perfect calm. The ground is covered with spiders' webs innumerable, crossing the paths, extending

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from shrub to shrub, and floating in the air. This appearance is called gossamer, and is caused by an infinite multitude of small spiders, which, when they want to change their place, have a power of shooting forth several long threads, to which they attach themselves, and thus becoming buoyant, are carried gently through the air as long as they please; after which, by coiling up their threads, they descend very gradually to the ground. A remarkable shower of gossamer is described in the following quotation from White's "Natural History of Selborne." "On September 21, 1741, being intent on field diversions, I rose before day-break; when I came into the inclosures, I found the stubbles and clover-grounds matted all over with a thick coat of cobweb in the meshes of which a copious and heavy dew hung so plentifully, that the whole face of the country seemed, as it were, covered with two or three setting-nets, drawn one over another. When the dogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were so blinded and hood-winked, that they could not proceed, but were obliged to lie down and scrape the incumbrances from their faces with their fore-feet. As the morning advanced, the sun became bright and warm, and the day turned out one of those most lovely ones which no season but the autumn produces; cloudless, calm, serene, and worthy of the south of France itself."

"About nine an appearance very unusual began to demand our attention, a shower of cobwebs falling from very elevated regions, and continuing without any interruption till the close of day. These webs were not single filmy threads, floating in the air in all directions, but perfect flakes or rags; some near an inch broad, and five or six long. On every side as the observer turned his eye, might he behold a continual succession of fresh flakes falling into his sight, and twinkling like stars as they turned their sides towards the sun. Neither before nor after was any such shower observed; but on this day the flakes hung in the trees and hedges so thick, that a diligent person might have gathered baskets full."

The fogs during this month and the next are more frequent and thicker than at any other period of the year. The reason of this will be evident from considering the cause of fogs. There is a constant and very large exhalation

THE HUNTING SEASON.

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from the surface of the earth at all seasons of water, in the form of vapour; and the warmer the ground the greater will be the evaporation. When the air is warmer, or even but a little colder than the earth, the ascent of vapour is not perceptible to the eye; but when the temperature of the air is considerably lower, the vapour as soon as it rises is deprived of part of its heat, the watery particles are brought more into union, and they become visible in the form of steam: it is also essential to the formation of fog that there should be little or no wind stirring, in order that the rising exhalations may have full opportunity to condense. The heat of the middle of the days in autumn is still sufficient to warm the earth and cause a large ascent of vapour, which the chilling frosty nights, which are also generally very calm, condense into mists, differing from clouds only in remaining on the surface of the ground.

Now by the cool declining year condensed
Descend the copious exhalations, check'd
As up the middle sky unseen they stole,
And roll the doubling fogs around the hill.
* Thence expanding far,

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The huge dusk gradual swallows up the plain :
Vanish the woods; the dim-seen river seems
Sullen and slow to roll the misty wave.
Even in the height of noon oppress'd, the sun
Sheds weak, and blunt, his wide refracted ray;
Whence glaring oft, with many a broaden'd orb,
He frights the nations. Indistinct on earth,
Seen through the turbid air, beyond the life
Objects appear, and, wilder'd, o'er the waste
The shepherd stalks gigantic.

THOMSON.

This month is the height of the hunting-season: the temperature of the weather being peculiarly favourable to the sport, and, as the products of the earth are all got in, little damage is done by the horsemen in pursuing their chase across the fields.

All now is free as air, and the gay pack

In the rough bristly stubbles range unblamed;
No widow's tears o'erflow, no secret curse
Swells in the farmer's breast, which his pale lips
Trembling conceal, by his fierce landlord awed;
But courteous now he levels ev'ry fence,

Joins in the common cry, and halloos loud,
Charm'd with the rattling thunder of the field.

SOMERVILLE.

It is usually in October that the bee-hives are despoiled of their honey. As long as flowers are plentiful, the bees continue adding to their store; but when these fail, they are obliged to subsist on the produce of their summer labours; from this time, therefore, the hive decreases in value. Its condition is judged by its weight. The common way of procuring the honey is by destroying the industrious collectors of it, with the fumes of burning brimstone. This cruel necessity may, however, be prevented by using hives or boxes so contrived as to exclude the bees from the different partitions as they become filled; or by employing fumes that will stupify without killing them. In this case enough of the honey must be left for their subsistence during winter; but this is found to deduct so materially from the profits, as, in a pecuniary point of view to render it a much less eligible way than the usual one.

In most of the wine countries of Europe the vintage takes place in October. The grape is one of the latest fruits in ripening. When gathered they are immediately pressed, and the juice is fermented like that of apples in making cyder. A great variety of wines are produced from the different kinds of grapes, or the diversity of climates where they grow. In England this fruit does not ripen with sufficient constancy to be worth cultivation for the purpose of making wine.

This month is particularly chosen, on account of its mild temperature, for the brewing of malt liquor designed for long keeping, which is, therefore, commonly called old October.

The first of the month is the day appointed, by act of parliament, for the commencement of the decoy business, which about the close of October is at its height. The extensive marsh-lands of Lincolnshire are the tract that is chiefly resorted to in this country by the wild ducks, and other water fowl, and prodigious numbers of them are annually taken in the decoys.

A decoy is generally made where there is a large unfrequented pond surrounded by wood, and backed by a marshy and uncultivated country. In different quarters of

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