clump of deep blue flowers from which it issued is discerned, which reminds one of Shakspeare's beautiful lines on these flowers, and of the verses of Lorenzo de Medici. Frogs are now heard croaking from the ponds, ditches, and other waters; Snails are found clustered on the warm south walls by the early blossoms of the peach tree; Toads make now an unusual grating noise, and the Stone Curlew, which arrives during the last days of February, is now heard by night flying over our heads unseen and uttering its harsh and shrill cry. In fine days towards Ladytide the early sulphur Butterfly is seen about, and the Bees come abroad. At a more advanced period of this season, and soon after Ladytide, the red and the yellow Crown Imperials and the Dogs Tooth Violet blow. The Primroses and Dog Violets, which have blossomed sparingly before, now cover every bank and brae in profusion, and mix agreeably together. These plants extend their flowering into the beginning of the next season, and are scarcely out of blow by the 24th of May, a day on which the two Floras almost meet, and when the greatest number of plants are in flower in all temperate climates, the day on which, as if to become the favourite of the Goddess of Blooms, the great Linnæus was born.

The weather, as the Primaveral Season advances, gets more and more variable; a cold biting north east wind, with sudden sunfits casting a temporary gleam on the growing green corn, a warm and drying day or two producing dust, rapid showers

of snow or hail alternating with bright sunshine, with frosty nights, or warm days, all alternate with each other, and succeed the rain, which often falls pretty copiously earlier in the season, so that the proverbial adages of February filldyke, and of March manyweathers, applies successively to the two portions of the primaveral period. This season is by no means devoid of beauty; we have mentioned the flowering of some very brilliant early spring plants, and to that number we might add many more; the blossoming of many early shrubs and trees too, is another striking and beautiful feature of this season. The Mezereon is a bush covered with bright pink flowers without leaves, and stands up in our leafless primaveral gardens a most conspicuous ornament. The Almond tree and double Peach are often covered with pink, and the early Plums with white blossoms that have a fine distant effect combined with the above described phenomena, while the season advancing gives place at length to one still more agreeable, and which I shall proceed to describe.

The VERNAL SEASON begins about old Ladytide, April 6th, and it is during this period that the trees gradually acquire their leaves, which are perfected by the latter end of it. The weather is now generally fine, and for the most part dry; a sort of clear weather often occurs, with northerly and easterly winds, cold nights, and very bright days with deep blue sky; this alternates at times with the electrical showers of springtime, and we

have more hail perhaps during this than at any other period, and at times very cold east and north east winds, particularly about Easter, which is said to be a Saxon word derived from the prevalence of the east wind. Thunderstorms sometimes happen in this season, but are not frequent. During all these vicissitudes of weather the average temperature and evaporation encrease, and bring us gradually to the warmth of summer. Early in this season the Dor Beetle Scarabeus fimetarius, begins to be heard humming by us in the dusk of the evening, and the Flittermouse is on the wing whenever the air is mild at eventide.

One of the most striking phenomena of this season is the return of the vernal birds of passage, which arrive by degrees, and fill the woods and gardens with their melody; those birds too which remain with us all the year are now in full song. The Nightingale, the Redstart, the Blackcap, and all the Willow Wrens arrive in April.

The most remarkable genus of birds that arrive in spring are the Swallows, and the interest always taken in their natural history, and particularly in the wintry retreat of those birds, may be judged of by the circumstance that there is scarcely a writer on natural phenomena, ancient or modern, who has not mentioned the swallow. Above fifty letters on the hybernation of the Swallow have been written in the Gentleman's Magazine, and the question was hardly settled till very lately,

"Whether they lie torpid in winter or migrated." The fact is, that, like other summer birds, Swallows migrate to more southern countries in autumn.

Ever found to be the harbinger of spring, and living on winged insects that would be otherwise noxious to us, the Swallows have always been favourites. In Greece the children used to make a sort of holiday on the first arrival of the Swallows. In Greece, Italy, and other southern countries, the Swallow arrives about the first of March; with us their arrival is much later. The chimney Swallow appears between the fifth and 19th of April, and the common Martlet and sand Martin between the 20th and 30th of that month. The Swift or black Martinet is first seen about the feast of the Apparition of St. Michael, May 8th; but it is about the 14th that the great arrival happens, and they are then seen in numbers about towers, steeples, and ruined buildings, while the Swallows resort to our chimneys, the Martlets to the eaves of houses and the sides of windows of churches and other buildings, and the sand Martins to steep banks.

During the middle and latter part of the Vernal Season the business of nestmaking takes place, and the first broods are hatched, fledged, and fly before the close of the period, during which time the cock birds are in full song. Every bird has a note or a modulation of notes peculiar to himself, yet, what

*See Nat. Hist. Swallows, by Dr. T. Forster, London, 1817.

seems extraordinary, many birds decidedly imitate the notes of others. The Blackcap and the Thrush mock the Nightingale; and hence it happens that in the north and west of England, where Nightingales do not abound, the notes of these mocking songsters is less musical and less varied. Many other birds mock the Nightingale, and also mock each other. In Part II. I have noted the average days on which birds arrive, which may be found out by the naturalist from their notes as well as by seeing them; and to those who are skilled in the music of the grove this forms a very pleasant amusement during the bright fine weather of a vernal morning. I have known persons who could distinguish the notes of every bird in the garden immediately on hearing him, but who at the same time were so little favoured by Apollo with regard to common music, that they could not tell Rule Britannia from the College Hornpipe. The cooing of the Ringdove, the wild Pidgeon, and the Turtle, are sounds too which are characteristic of the period we are describing, but above all the rest that mark the Vernal Season we must commemorate the well known song of the Cuckoo. This bird usually arrives with the Wryneck in the middle of April, and I have remarked that between the 14th, which is called in Sussex Cuckoo day, and the festival of St. Mark, April 25th, this bird is always first heard, but more usually towards the end of that time, or from the 20th to 23d April. All May he sings, as the proverb says, night and