SPRING-TIME ON THE MOORS. O 



notes of 3'esterday ; visibly tliey luxuriate iu the genial 

 ■change. Under the cold and humid conditions of atmo- 

 sphere which have hitherto prevailed, one can hardly form 

 any very close acquaintanceship with them. One only hears 

 their wild alarm notes as they spring, unseen in the fog, far 

 away. Now, under the genial influence of warmth and a 

 dry atmosphere, they cease to resent man's intrusion on 

 their domains, and go about their domestic duties almost 

 regardless of his presence, though close at hand. The wilder 

 spirits — those irreconcilables that are impregnated, as it 

 were, to the very marrow with inherent fear and suspicion 

 of our race — such as the Mallard and the Curlew, may still 

 think it necessary to keep a gunshot or two away from the 

 intruder ; but even these seem to do so half-unconsciously — 

 merely from force of habit and association, and not at all 

 in an offensive manner. The game-birds, the Plovers and 

 the Teal, now abandon nearly all their hybernal shyness, and 

 tacitly recognize the temporary suspension of hostilities. 

 The trout, also, in the hill-burns which have hitherto dis- 

 regarded all the attractions of insect-food — real or artificial — 

 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. Everything, in short, man included, 

 feels the exhilarating influence of the day, and enjoys 

 it all the more from the knowdedge that it may be very 

 transient. Nothing, indeed, is more delightful than the 

 rare spells of fine warm weather w'hich do occur at this 

 season — early spring — when the 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 but little 

 conspicuous 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 



