ANIMAL LIFE.
Birds.—Swifts and old cuckoos depart. Many rooks go into winter quarters. Nightingales begin to depart. Sand-martins congregate. Song-birds are comparatively silent.
Insects.—All stages of vapourer moth may be found.
SEPTEMBER.
PLANT LIFE.
General Work for Autumn Months.—Study the storage of food in twigs, underground stems, bulbs, etc. (Chaps. [IV]. and [V].); collect good specimens of leaves showing autumn colours, observe the phenomena of leaf-fall and the formation of vegetable mould, and notice the order in which forest trees become leafless (Chaps. [IV]. and [VIII].). Study the development and structure of fruits, and the methods of dispersal of seeds ([Chap. IX.]). Make collections of dry fruits ([Chap. IX.]), and of the “seed” of useful and injurious grasses ([Chap. VII.]).
Plants usually in flower.—Shepherd’s purse, buttercup, meadow vetchling, red clover, white clover, blackberry, hedge parsley, water dropwort, daisy, dandelion, thistle, foxglove, speedwell, snapdragon, musk, mint, red deadnettle, white deadnettle, slender foxtail, annual meadow grass, and others.
Ash and horse chestnut leaves fall.