_falls a yellow leaf from a slender birch near by ... small flock of robins from a pine ... swallows were gathering upon the telegraph wires_: Next summer, note the exact date on which you first see signs of autumn--the first falling of the leaves, the first gathering of birds for their southern trip. Most of the migrating birds go in flocks for the sake of companionship and protection. _chewink_ (named from his call, ch[=e]-wink´; accent on second, not on first, syllable, as in some dictionaries) or ground robin, or towhee or joree; one of the finch family. You will know him by his saying “chewink” and by his vigorous scratching among the dead leaves, and by his red-brown body and black head and neck. _vireo_ (v[vi]r´-[=e]-[=o]]): the red-eyed vireo, the commonest of the vireo family; often called “Preacher”; builds the little hanging nest from a small fork on a bush or tree so low often that you can look into it. _fiery notes of the scarlet tanager_ (t[)a]n´-a-j[~e]r): His notes are loud and strong, and he is dressed in fiery red clothes and sings on the fieriest of July days. PAGE 4 _resonant song of the indigo bunting_: or indigo-bird, one of the finch family. He sings from the very tip of a tree as if to get up close under the dome of the sky. Indeed, his notes seem to strike against it and ring down to us; for there is a peculiar ringing quality to them, as if he were singing to you from inside a great copper kettle. _scarlet tanager by some accident_: The tanager arrives among the last of the birds in the spring, and builds late; but, if you find a nest in July or August, it is pretty certain to be a second nest, the first having been destroyed somehow--a too frequent occurrence with all birds. _half-fledged cuckoos_: The cuckoo also is a very late builder. I have more than once found its eggs in July. _red wood-lily_: Do you know the wood-lily, or the “wild orange-red lily” as some call it (_Lilium philadelphicum_)? It is found from New England to North Carolina and west to Missouri, but only on hot, dry, sandy ground, whereas the turk’s-cap and the wild yellow lily are found only where the ground is rich and moist. _low mouldy moss_: Bring to school a flake, as large as your hand, of the kind of lichen you think this may be. Some call it “reindeer moss.” _sweet-fern_: Put a handful of sweet-fern (_Myrica asplenifolia_) in your pocket, a leaf or two in your book; and whenever you pass it in the fields, pull it through your fingers for the odor. Sweet gale and bayberry are its two sweet relatives. PAGE 5