62 



THE NATURALIST ABROAD; 

 OR, DAYS IN THE WOODS AND FIELDS; 



INCLUDING INCIDENTAL BOTANICAL AND ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTICES. 



By Edwin Lees, F. L S., and F. E. S. L. 



No. II. 



The morning Lark has not yet heralded the day ; all is obscure in the misty 

 mantle that envelops sleeping Nature, and the river rolls its dark noiseless cur- 

 rent, irradiated only by the scanty gleam of a solitary planet. As I penetrate 

 among the groves and glens, an overpowering stillness seems to prevail, broken 

 only at long intervals by the distant bark of the watch-Dog, or the crowing of the 

 vigilant Chanticleer. But a distant harmony now sweeps its cadence through the 

 air, rising and blending with the breeze that wafts sighing through the bushes. 

 It comes like the memory of departed years, for it is a pleasing sound that will 

 ere long cease its intonation in these vales. It is the bells on the teams of Here- 

 fordshire, that sound far in the silence of the morning, and which once warned ap- 

 proaching vehicles that there was no passing each other through the deep hollow- 

 ways and water-courses then forming the roads. Custom continues the old bells that 

 have descended from horse to horse and harness to harness, ever since the old 

 timber-mansion rose beside its Yew-tree ; but the roads have become wider, the 

 narrow defiles are now abandoned to the Marchantice and the Ferns, — the old 

 tenant is succeeded by a modern " agriculturist," who knows not bells,and the 

 harmonious jingle will soon tell the tale of other times no more ! 



We have imperceptibly got across the fields to the brink of the river, and here, 

 beneath a Willow, a Bat is taking his early breakfast. It is not our little friend 

 of the barn and out-house, fluttering to and fro like a parachute, nor yet is it the 

 swift darter of evening snapping his wing as he hurries over the water, for this 

 seems confined to one spot, where he works away with persevering industry 

 round and round the tree, in the dubious twilight, though the glimpse we obtain 

 of him is scarcely sufficient to distinguish him satisfactorily. A brilliant saffron 

 tint now spreads along the brightening east, the stars are rapidly fading away, 

 various Moths dash along for their last career in the cool air, the solemn Heron 

 steals silently, flagging his wings to a deeper recess among the bulrushes, and a 

 cloud of Rooks make the air resound with their repeated cawings, as they slowly 

 fly over us beyond the upland woods. 



