By default, whatever column you have given in the SELECT clause will appear in the results. In the previous examples, you have found out the count, but it is displayed as COUNT(*). You can change it by using the AS alias:
mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM employees WHERE hire_date BETWEEN '1986-12-01' AND '1986-12-31';+-------+| count |+-------+| 3081 |+-------+1 row in set (0.06 sec)