About the middle of August, the largest of the swallow tribe, the swift or long-wing, disappears. As there can yet be no want of insect food, and the weather is still warm, they cannot be supposed to retire to holes or caverns and become torpid for the Winter; and as they are so admirably formed for flight, it can scarcely be doubted that they now migrate to some distant country. Nearly at the same time, rooks no longer pass the nights from home, but roost in their nest-trees.

The red-breast, one of our finest though commonest songsters, renews his music about the end of the month.

SEPTEMBER.

Now softened suns a mellow lustre shed,

The laden orchards glow with tempted red;

On hazel boughs the clusters hang embrown'd,

And with the sportsman's war the new-shorn fields resound.

THIS is, in general, a very agreeable month, the distinguishing softness and serenity of Autumn, with its deep blue skies, prevailing through great part of it. The days are now very sensibly shortened; and the mornings and evenings are chill and damp, though the warmth is still considerable in the middle of the day. This variation of temperature, is one cause why Autumn is an unhealthy time, especially in the warmer climates and in moist situations. Those who are obliged to be abroad early or late in this season, should be guarded by warm clothing against the cold fogs.

In late years, a good deal of corn is abroad, especially in the northern parts of the island, at the beginning of September; but it is supposed that, in general, all will be got in, or at least cut, by this time; for the first of the month is the day, on which it is allowed by law, to begin shooting partridges. These birds make their nests in corn-fields, where they bring up their young, which run after the

parents like chickens. While the corn is standing, they have a safe refuge in it; but after harvest, when the sportsman may freely range over the stubble with his pointers, they are either obliged to take the wing, and offer themselves to the shooter's aim; or are surrounded by nets on the ground, and tnus taken in whole coveys

In his mid-career, the spaniel struck,
Stiff, by the tainted gale, with open nose,
Outstretch'd, and finely sensible, draws full,
Fearful and cautious, on the latent prey;
As in the sun the circling covey bask
Their varied plumes, and watchful every way
Thro' the rough stubble turn the secret eye.

THOMSON.

A remarkable product of the earth collected in this month, is saffron. This is cultivated in various parts of Europe, but none is superior to that grown in England, chiefly in the counties of Essex and Cambridge. The saffron plant is a species of crocus, which is planted in July, and the flowers gathered in September. The part which alone is used, is the fine branched filiments on the inside of the flower, called the Chives. It is properly an expansion of the female part of fructification, or pistil. These are picked off, dried, and pressed together into cakes. They are of a high orange colour, and have a very strong aromatic odour. Saffron is used in medicine as cordial; and its flavour was formerly much esteemed in cookery. It gives a fine deep yellow dye.

E

Very few other flowers open in this month; and it is to the ripening fruits, that we are chiefly indebted for variegation of colour in the landscape of Nature.

The labours of the husbandman have but a very short intermission; for no sooner is the harvest gathered in, but the fields are again plowed up, and prepared for the Winter corn, rye and wheat, which is sown during this month and the next.

At this time it is proper to straiten the entrance of bee-hives, that wasps and drones may have less opportunity of getting in, and devouring the honey.

Early in September, a harvest of a peculiar kind is offered to the inhabitants of our sea-coasts, in the immense shoals of herrings, which travelling in a prodigious army from the neighbourhood of the arctic circles, after many divisions and sub-divisions, at length appear in the narrow seas which encompass our island. Yarmouth is the principal station, in England, from whence the fishermen proceed in search of this valuable booty.

Towards the end of this month, the chimney or common swallow entirely disappears. There are various opinions concerning the manner in which these birds dispose of themselves during the Winter; some imagining that they all fly away to distant southern regions, where insect-food is at all times to be met with; others, that they retire to holes and caverns,

or even sink to the bottom of ponds and rivers, where they pass the Winter months in a torpid and apparently lifeless state. That many of them migrate to other countries, seems sufficiently proved. But some, probably, always stay behind, which are the younger broods, or smaller kinds, that are incapable of so long a flight. For some time before their departure, they begin to collect in flocks, settling on trees, basking on the roofs of buildings, or gathering round towers and steeples, from whence they take short excursions, as if to try their powers of flight

When Autumn scatters his departing gleams,
Warn'd of approaching Winter, gathered, play
The swallow-people; and toss'd wide around,
O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift,
The feathered eddy floats: rejoicing once,

Ere to their Wintry slumbers they retire;

In clusters clung, beneath the mould'ring bank,
And where, unperceiv'd by frost, the cavern sweats.
Or rather into warmer climes convey'd,

With other kindred birds of season, there

They twitter chearful, till the vernal months

Invite them welcome back: for, thronging, now
Innumerous wings are in commotion all..

THOMSON.

Not only the swallow tribe, but many other small birds which feed on insects, disappear on the approach of cold weather, when the insects themselves are no longer to be met with.

On the other hand, some birds arrive at this season from still more northerly countries to spend the