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Winter, still lingering on the verge of Spring,
Retires reluctant, and from time to time

Looks back, while, at his keen and chilling breath,
Fair Flora sickens.

THE great operations of Nature during this month seems to be, to dry up the superabundant moisture of February, thereby preventing the roots and seeds from rotting in the earth; and gradually to bring forward the process of evolution in the swelling buds, whilst, at the same time, by the wholesome severity of chilling blasts, they are kept from a premature disclosure, which would expose their tender contents to injury from the yet unsettled season. This effect is beautifully touched upon in a simile of Shakspeare

And like the tyrannous breathing of the north, Checks all our buds from blowing.

This seeming tyranny, however, is to be regarded as productive of very important advantages; and those years generally prove most fruitful, in which the pleasing appearances of spring are the latest; for the more advanced the season, the less probability is there of blights and insects, which are the most formidable of all enemies to springing vegetables.

The sun has now acquired so much power, that on a clear day we often feel all the genial influence of spring, though the naked shrubs and trees give the landscape the comfortless appearance of winter. But soft pleasant weather in March is not often of long duration.

The

As soon as a few dry days have made the land fit for working, the farmer goes to the plough; and if the fair weather continues, proceeds to sow barley and oats, though this business is seldom finished till the next month. importance of a dry season for getting the seed early and favourably into the ground is expressed in the old proverb

A bushel of March dust is worth a king's ransom.

The mellow note of the throstle, who sits perched on the naked bough of some lofty tree, is heard from the beginning of the month, and at the same time the ringdove coos in the woods; pheasants crow; hens sit; ducks and geese lay; and the rookery is now all in motion with the pleasing labour of building and repairing nests. It is highly amusing to observe the tricks and artifices of this thievish tribe in defending or plundering the materials of their new habitations. A society with such a licence of theft one would imagine could not possibly subsist; and that they are sometimes obliged to interpose the public will, to control the private dispositions of individuals, is shown in the following story. There was once in a rookery a pair of birds, who, in the building time, instead of going out in search of materials, kept at home, and, watching the oppor tunity, plundered every unguarded nest; thus building their own habitation by contributions levied upon the industry of their neighbours. This had continued some time, and the robbers had hitherto escaped with impunity; their nest was just finished, when the rest of the society, by common consent, made an attack on the depredators, beat them soundly, demolished their nest, and expelled them ignominiously from the rookery.

These birds are accused by the farmer of doing much injury by plucking up the young corn, and other springing vegetables, though of late it seems to have become a general opinion that this mischief is fully repaid by their diligence

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in picking up the grubs of various insects, which, if allowed to grow to maturity, would occasion much greater damage. For this purpose they are seen frequently following the plough, and darkening with their numbers the newly turned up land; in which occupation, near the sea-coast, they are frequently joined by multitudes of gulls; and as these birds at other times confine themselves almost wholly to the shore, it would probably be worth the farmer's while, where he has an opportunity, to encourage them in preference to the former.

Some birds that took refuge in our temperate climate from the rigour of the arctic winters, now begin to leave us, and return to the countries where they were bred; the redwing-thrush, fieldfare, and woodcock, are of this kind, ru. and they retire to spend their summer in Norway, Sweden, and other northern regions. The reason why these birds quit the north of Europe in winter is evidently to escape the severity of the frost; but why at the approach of spring they should return to their former haunts, is not so easily accounted for. It cannot be want of food, for if during the winter in this country they are able to subsist, they may fare plentifully through the rest of the year; neither can their migration be caused by an impatience of warmth, for the season when they quit this country is by no means so hot as the Lapland summers; and in fact, from a few stragglers or wounded birds annually breeding here, it is evident that there is nothing in our climate or soil which should hinder them from making this country their permanent residence, as the thrush, blackbird, and others of their congeners, actually do. The crane, the stork, and other birds, which used formerly to be natives of our island, have quitted it as cultivation and population have extended; it is probable also, that the same reason forbids the fieldfare and redwing-thrush, which are of a timorous, retired disposition, to make choice of England as a place of sufficient security to breed in.

The gannets, or Solan geese, resort, during this month, to those Scotch isles, where they breed in such numbers as to cover almost the whole surface of the ground with their eggs and young. The Bass, an insulated rock in the Firth of Forth, is one of their most favourite haunts; of which

place Dr. Harvey, in his "Exercitations on the Generation of Animals," has given a very animated picture. The following is a literal translation of the original Latin:"There is a small island, called by the Scotch the Bass, not more than a mile in circumference; its surface is almost entirely covered during the months of May and June with nests, eggs, and young birds, so that it is difficult to set a foot without treading on them; while the flocks of birds flying round are so prodigious that they darken the air like a cloud, and their voice and clamour is so great, that persons can scarcely hear one another speak. If from the summit of the precipice you look down on the subjacent ocean, you see it on every side covered with infinite numbers of birds of different kinds swimming and hunting their prey. If you sail round the island, and survey the impending cliffs, you behold in every fissure and recess of the craggy rocks innumerable ranks of birds of various kinds and sizes, surpassing in multitude the stars in a serene sky. If you view from a distance the flocks flying to and from the island, you may imagine them a vast swarm of bees."

Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air,
And rude resounding shore, are one wild cry.

THOMSON.

Frogs, which during winter lay in a torpid state at the bottom of ponds or ditches, are enlivened by the warmth of spring, and early in this month rise to the surface of the water in vast numbers. They are at first very timorous, and dive to the bottom with great quickness as any one approaches; but in the coupling season they become bolder, and make themselves heard to a great distance by their croaking. A short time after their first appearance they begin to spawn, each female deposits a mass of transparent jelly-like globes with a black speck in the middle; in this last are contained the rudiments of the future tadpole, while the transparent covering serves both for the defence and food of the embryo. In a few days the round speck becomes somewhat elongated, at the same time increasing in size, till, at the end of about three weeks or a month, the little animal breaks through its covering, and trusts itself to the shallowest and warmest part of the pond or ditch

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where it happens to be deposited: as the summer advances it increases in size, the fore-legs begin to shoot out, and shortly after the hind ones, the body becomes more lengthened, the tail falls off, the length of the intestines is considerably shortened, and from an aquatic graminivorous animal it is changed into a minute frog, amphibious and feeding upon insects and other animal food. When this last transformation is perfected, the necessity of emigration seizes upon the whole brood, the water is deserted, and they make their appearance on the land so suddenly, and in such amazing numbers, that they have been supposed to descend from the clouds. So prone have men in all ages been to have recourse to wonders, by way of saving themselves the trouble of minute investigation and the use of their senses!

The bat now makes its appearance; and about this time also the viper uncoils itself from its winter sleep. This is the only venomous reptile that our country affords, and happily it is by no means common. They are found principally in rocky warm thickets and in unfrequented heaths in search of their favourite food, the various species of field-mice; very seldom intruding, as the common snake, into the gardens and hedge-banks. In some of the small uninhabited islands of the Hebrides they swarm to a great degree. The poison of these animals is secreted in a small gland under each eye, from which passes a duct, terminating in a sharp perforated canine tooth, capable of being erected or depressed at pleasure. When the viper wishes to inflict a wound, it erects its canine teeth, and darting forwards, strikes them into the skin, at the same time squeezing a drop of poison through the aperture in the tooth; the wound soon after grows very hot and painful, swells extremely, and occasionally proves fatal, or at least takes away the use of the injured part, unless a proper remedy is speedily applied. That which is in common use, and which has scarcely ever been known to fail, is olive or salad oil; a quantity of which rubbed upon the wound, and also taken internally, is a certain remedy: on which account the vipercatchers have always a bottle of oil with them in case of need.

Those most elegant fish, smelts or sparlings, begin to run

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