106 CLERKS OF THE WEATHER. 
period of the year. I trust that in future better and truer ideas 
may prevail; that the Hawks and Owls, the Jays, Magpies, and 
other trophies may nolonger disgrace the gamekeeper’s rail— 
that the value of our English birds will be taught in every school 
in the country, and birds nesting discountenanced to the fullest 
extent. It is chiefly amongst the young that we must look for 
the reception of more rational views on this important subject. 
A change is, however, I am glad to say, taking place in the popu- 
lar mind, an increased interest is being shown, and more en- 
lightened views are being entertained. We have, then, good 
hope that this will continue, and that the time is not far distant 
when a Sparrow Club will be unknown, and the Gamekeeper’s 
Museum a thing of the past. 
Tuog. MarsHAtt. 
Glevks of the weather. 
66 FS it going to be a fine day?” is a question which, at this 
season of out-door enjoyment, is frequently upon our lips. 
If we have made arrangements for a pic-nic, or for a no less en- 
joyable ramble in search of wild flowers or insects, it is, to say 
the least of it, unsatisfactory, when our first morning peep out of 
window is met by a dull sky or a heavy bank of clouds. If it 
rained we should feel disappointed; but the uncertainty is even 
more trying. Now, in such cases, we doubtless feel how useful 
would be the information obtainable from the Clerk of the 
Weather Office, did that functionary exist; but as that source 
of weather-knowledge is denied to us, we must look around 
and see if Nature, the truest Lady Bountiful extant, has not in 
some measure supplied the deficiency. As usual, we find pro- 
vided for us the very things we require: and these little black 
imps, sluggish though they seem now, are Clerks of the Weather 
in good sooth, known though they be by the less dignified name 
of Leeches. 
