MOORLANDS OF THE BORDER 9 



ciation, and not at all in an obtrusive manner. The 

 game-birds, the plovers, and the teal now abandon nearly- 

 all their hybernal shyness, tacitly recognising" a tem- 

 porary suspension of hostilities. The trout, also, in 

 the hill-burns, which have hitherto disregarded all the 

 attractions of insect-food — real or counterfeit — grubbing 

 about on the bottom for their livelihood, now roll and 

 play on the surface, in the glancing waters, and in the 

 heads of the streams. Every creature, in short, man 

 included, feels the exhilarating influence of the day, 

 and enjoys it all the more from the knowledge that the 

 change may be very transient. Nothing, indeed, is more 

 delightful than the rare spells of fine warm weather, 

 which do occur in early spring, when winter appears at 

 last to have passed away, and the atmosphere becomes 

 resonant with a chorus of wild bird-notes, and redolent 

 with the fragrance of the heather-burning. 



Where development depends on so extremely variable 

 a factor as our spring climate, its course is necessarily 

 very irregular. Up to the end of March there is no 

 visible change from the bleak and wintry aspect of the 

 moors. Many of the spring-birds are there, it is true, 

 but at first they are restless and shy. The spring 

 element of trustfulness and confidence has not yet 

 appeared, and the grouse are still seen spinning away, 

 as wild as in November. Indeed it is not till May that 

 the true spirit of the vernal season is fully developed. 

 In mid- April the only signs of vegetation are the catkins 

 on the willows and saughs. By the end of that month 

 the hardy birch and alder may show some symptoms of 

 returning foliage ; but the heather remains as black and 

 as cold as ever, and the grass, rushes, and fern are but 

 the dead and withered remnants of last year's growth, 



