The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-26
SUMMER ON THE EBB.
Premonitory Signs of Autumn to Be
Observed in Vegetation and Birds.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
Perhaps there is no marked difference
in the aspects of nature in the last week
Of July and the first week of August, but
there does begin to be a change before
the first week of August has melted into
the second. There are singing insects in
July and there are still a few singing
birds in the first week of August, but by
the second week of August natures
chorus is of insects rather than of birds,
by night rlther than by day. That is
really the most noticeable change in thu
fortnight covered by the last week Of
July and the first week of August
The insect chorus is the premonitory
symptoms of autumn; the silence of the
birds contains a prophecy of frost and
falling leaves. The insect chorus is
marvel of tirelessness. 1t goes on all
night in ceaSeless undertone, like the
grinding of INCREASED machinery. pune
tuated at intervals by the sharp cry of
the katydid.
Meanwhile there are a hundred other
indications that summer is upon it's ebb,
One can no longer note from week to week
the growth of vegetation. Unreaped fields
OF grass have run to seed in pale golden
browns The Virginia creeper has lost
the exuberance of May and June and be-
gins to be a little ragged. There are
r1penlng seeds everywhere, and fruits
swollen to great size in readiness for ma
lures harvest. The last touch of youth
has disappeared from the forest tops.
Within the depths of the woodland are
tangled bowers of grape and clematis.
The COW paths that were new-trodden in
May have become hard and almost dusty.
They penetrate the woodland in every
direction, diving deep into thickets in
vain search of the streams that Gwindled
and dwindled until the annual July
drought drank them dry.
The woodland bears evidence in all
directions of the season S accidents. There
are broken limbs here and there. and
many scared leaves stung by insects that
thus provided a home for their larvae.
mat, II nothing else, would serve to dis
tlngnlsh August from the earlier summer
months. Everything, animal and vegeta-
BILE, speaks of time of coming maturity.
The conduct of the birds is a thing to
watch and wonder at. They seem, if any
thing, more numerous than two months
| ago; out they have an air of preoccupa-
ton with material things. They have no
time for singing and lovemaking Great
fat ROBINS are bouncing about the lawns
in search of food and quarreling in the
trees The catbird is mewing his ueliest.
Sleek, swift cuckoos are moving with
easy fight from orchard to woodland,
from woodland to orchard, and invisible
afar the dove, clad in Quaker costume,
with an undertone of worldly pink, and
faint splenoor of the rainbow about its
throat, is moaning forth soft music.
! The crested peewee sits high in silence
upon sapling, and suddenly making a
soft, graceful curve in air, seizes the in
visible insect, gulps it, and drops to his
perch to await another victim, Perhaps
the robins and their migratory feathered
followers are strengthening themselves
with abundant food and daily practice for
the coming long nights that shall take
them below the frost line. They must
know weeks in advance of the coming
flight southwark, and knowing its reason,
perhaps the melancholy foreboding of
frost and the end of summer have silenced
their songs. AT any rate, sympathetic
men and women read the premonitious Of
autumn in that strange silence.