liage, frost does not seem indispensable; one finds that the leaves turn at a certain time, whether we have had frost or not. The single trees, or groves, and the borders of a wood, seem to be touched first, while the forest generally still preserves its verdure. 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 yellow.
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 little distance, they are not observed. The hemlocks effect the change in their foliage imperceptibly, at least they seldom attract attention by it; nor do their fallen leaves lie in rusty, barren patches on the earth, beneath the trees, like those of the pine.
Saw a pretty sight: a party of robins alighted 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 way, refusing water from a vessel, or a spring, but eagerly drinking when it trickles down in drops.
