To warm-blooded creatures, the crisp, cool nights of September are invigorating. But cold- blooded insects are at the mercy of the sun and now their clocks run down. The cicada is stilled. The chorus of the cricket and katydid diminishes. When they rasp at all it is with the deliberate tempo of a fiddler drawing a worn bow across fraying strings.

对温血动物来说，九月的夜晚，空气清新、凉爽，令人精神振奋。但对于冷血的昆虫来说，其命运只能任凭太阳的支配。它们的时光已经不多了。知了已不再鸣叫，蟋蟀、螽斯的合唱声越来越弱。当它们果真叫起来时，那刺耳的声音，仿佛是有人用一张破旧的琴弓，在破旧的琴弦上，故意拉出不和谐的节奏。

Now come the hoarding days. Mice have been harvesting and stowing seed for weeks. The chipmunk lines his winter bedroom, and squirrels hide the nut trees’ bounty. The woodchucks, gorging on grass and clover and fruit, lay up their harvest in body fat under their own skins.

冬储的日子到了。一连几周，老鼠都在收集、储藏各类种子。金花鼠把自己冬天的卧室装得满满的，小松鼠把各种坚果储藏起来。旱獭则狼吞虎咽地猛吃野草、红花草和各种野果，把自己的收获变成脂肪储存在皮下。

The flickers begin to gather for migration. All summer these big woodpeckers were resolutely individual, busy with family life and wanting no company. Now they are gregarious, with time for tribal gossip and community play. The warblers and swallows have already formed in pre-migration flocks; soon the robins will be gathering too. Nesting is completed, fledglings are on their own, and there is food in plenty. September is vacation time for birds. Who knows but that they are discussing the trip ahead?

啄木鸟开始聚结成群，准备南迁。整个夏天，这些啄木鸟都是单身独处，各自忙着自己的家庭生活，绝不和别人搭伴。现在却聚在一起，不是闲聊，就是一块儿做游戏。刺嘴鹰和小燕子已经聚成团伙，准备南迁。知更鸟也很快聚在一起了。孵卵工作已经完成，孵出的小鸟已经独立生活，而且食物到处都有。九月是鸟儿假期。它们或许已经提前讨论南迁的旅行了，谁又知道呢?