13° 



HA RD WICKE *S S CIENCE- G SSIP. 



brooke at Audley End. With but this solitary piece 

 of evidence in so long a period, my informant naturally 

 asks, "Where do the hybrids go, if there is such an 

 interbreeding ? " The point is one that I must leave 

 to those more competent to deal with it. It is not 

 likely, however, that such an accurate and patient 

 observer as Mr. Seebohm would countenance such a 

 theory without the fullest justification ; but if the 

 carrion crow is generally as rare as it is now becoming 

 in the home counties, his local namesake, if he persist 

 in his ways, will have to seek an alliance with the more 

 numerous rook family. But common fairness compels 

 me to admit that, at least, as he is seen in his winter 

 quarters, Corvus comix may fairly claim that his 

 family escutcheon is comparatively untarnished, and 

 that he can boast the same bold markings and motley 

 plumage as of old. 



Until the opening days of April, vegetation went 

 forward with leaps and bounds. In the almost 

 summer sunshine of the third week in March the 

 brimstone butterfly (Goiiepteryx rhamni), the peacock, 

 and tortoiseshell, sunned themselves for a little day, 

 and a very little day it proved to be, for, having 

 regard to what had gone before, and to what followed, 

 the month of April was quite phenomenal. The 

 most patient observer could find nothing fresh to 

 chronicle between the first and last weeks of the 

 month. Rarely has there been such a notable 

 instance of the effect of clouds upon temperature and 

 in protecting the young fruit crops from the mischief 

 of a sudden radiation at this season of the year, or of 

 the disastrous results which may follow upon the 

 sudden disappearance of clouds. Until the 18th of 

 April the nights for some time had been very cold, 

 but fortunately so, for the gardener and fruit grower 

 welcomed the solid blanket of cloud. But on that 

 night the clouds "rolled -by" with a vengeance, 

 leaving an exceptionally brilliant starlit sky, with 

 twelve degrees of frost, and the loss, in a single night, 

 of many thousands of 'pounds to the fruit growers in 

 the one district of the south of Cambridgeshire alone. 

 The effect of this, and the frosts which continued 

 with almost equal severity until the 24th, was also 

 felt in other directions. Upon the ^budding horse- 

 chestnut tree it was especially noticeable, the leaflets 

 being shrivelled up and blackened as if scorched by 

 fire, and the flower spikes in many cases never 

 attained their wonted splendour. Previous to this 

 sudden check the season had been remarkably for- 

 ward, as the following early entries for flowering 

 plants, &c, will show : Corylus Avcllana (hazel), 

 Jan. 12 ; Ranunculus ficaria (pilewort), Jan. 25 ; 

 Tussilago Farfara (coltsfoot), Feb. 12 ; Uhiius 

 montana (wych-elm), Feb. 20; Drain verna (whit- 

 low grass), Feb. 28 ; Pruuus spinosn (blackthorn), 

 March 13 ; Stellnria Holoslca (greater stitchwort), 

 March 25. In most cases these and other entries 

 were nearly a fortnight in advance of their mean 

 dales for flowering in Hertfordshire. 



Whenever a season sets in with unusual mildness, 

 as did that of 1884, every figure in the usual pageant 

 and retinue of spring is, in England, expected to 

 follow suit, regardless of consequences, and so the 

 competitive spirit which seeks to get the earliest 

 green peas into Covent Garden sets up a craze for 

 nightingales and cuckoos ! When, therefore, the 

 year 1884 opened in such a phenomenal manner, 

 everybody thought the nightingale ought to come a 

 month in advance as well, and come accordingly it 

 did in the imagination of quite a number of persons. 

 The first record, or report, of the singing of the 

 nightingale came, I believe, from Surrey, about the 

 third week in March ! 



Another instance was related to the writer, of one 

 singing vigorously at Hitchin, Herts, about the 25th 

 of March. Notwithstanding the fact that Hitchin 

 claims to be a favourite spot for the nightingale, and 

 can even boast of a "nightingale road," I could not 

 help doubting the identity of this Lady-Day nightin- 

 gale. Unfortunately, however, the circumstance was 

 related by a friend of the writer, and therefore 

 common courtesy obliged me to admit that that 

 particular nightingale did sing on Lady-Day, but I 

 am afraid that, as in the case of Waterton and the 

 hooting white owl, I had a lingering prejudice against 

 admitting that any other nightingale ever sang, in 

 this part of England at least, as early as Lady-Day. 

 Perhaps I may be wrong, though an observant 

 octogenarian informs me that for the last forty years 

 he has never known the arrival of the nightingale — 

 the first singing of the nightingale — to happen in the 

 neighbourhood of Royston (near Hitchin), but very 

 little before or after the loth and 21st April respec- 

 tively. White, in his " Natural History of Selborne," 

 I believe, gives a wider margin — between the 1st of 

 April and the 1st of May. The mean date for the 

 nightingale for Hertfordshire, arrived at by observa- 

 tions at several stations in different parts of the 

 county, is April 14th. As a matter-of-fact the 

 nightingale was not heard, as far as I could ascertain, 

 in the district from which I am writing until about 

 April 24th last year, the cuckoo being observed on 

 the 26th, and the swallow on the 27th, all three being 

 about ten days after the mean dates obtained by the 

 Herts Natural History Society. Probably we are 

 not giving sufficient credit to the instinct of our 

 feathered summer visitors in] supposing that they 

 must be influenced by the passing variations of our 

 seasons as much as we are ourselves, and it may not 

 be far wrong to assume that insect-feeding birds 

 regulate their migratory movements on safer lines 

 than the caprices of an English spring ; that their 

 guiding instinct is the perception of increasing length 

 rather than temporary "strength" of days. Even if 

 such a rule should occasionally play them false, and 

 occasion temporary suffering on arriving on our 

 shores, yet it cannot be denied that they have on 

 their side the inevitable laws of the universe, the 



