Well is it for the rest of creation that most of these insects are short-lived.  The span of life of many is but a day:  were it much longer human beings could hardly manage to exist during the rains.  Equally unbearable would life be were all the species of monsoon insects to come into being simultaneously.  Fortunately they appear in relays.  Every day some new forms enter on the stage of life and several make their exit.  The pageant of insect life, then, is an ever-changing one.  To-day one species predominates, to-morrow another, and the day after a third.  Unpleasant and irritating though these insect hosts be to human beings, some pleasure is to be derived from watching them.  Especially is this the case when the termites or white-ants swarm.  In the damp parts of Lower Bengal these creatures may emerge at any time of the year.  In Calcutta they swarm either towards the close of the rainy season or in spring after an exceptionally heavy thunderstorm.  In Madras they emerge from their hiding-places in October with the northeast monsoon.  In the United Provinces the winged termites appear after the first fall of the monsoon rain in June or July as the case may be.  These succulent creatures provide a feast for the birds which is only equalled by that furnished by a flight of locusts.  In the case of the termites it is not only the birds that partake.  The ever-vigilant crows are of course the first to notice a swarm of termites, and they lose no time in setting to work.  The kites are not far behind them.  These great birds sail on the outskirts of the flight, seizing individuals with their claws and transferring them to the beak while on the wing.  A few king-crows and bee-eaters join them.  On the ground below magpie-robins, babblers, toads, lizards, musk-rats and other terrestrial creatures make merry.  If the swarm comes out at dusk, as often happens, bats and spotted owlets join those of the gourmands that are feasting while on the wing.

The earth is now green and sweet.  The sugar-cane grows apace.  The rice, the various millets and the other autumn crops are being sown.  The cultivators take full advantage of every break in the rains to conduct agricultural operations.

As we have seen, the nocturnal chorus of the birds is now replaced by the croaking of frogs and the stridulation of crickets.  In the day-time the birds still have plenty to say for themselves.  The brain-fever birds scream as lustily as they did in May and June.  The koel is, if possible, more vociferous than ever, especially at the beginning of the month.  The Indian cuckoo does not call so frequently as formerly, but, by way of compensation, the pied crested cuckoo uplifts his voice at short intervals.