MARCH. 



69 



Bats and reptiles break up their winter 

 sleep; the little smelts or sparlings run up 

 the softened rivers to spawn ; the fieldfare 

 and woodcock return to their northern quar- 

 ters ; the rooks are all in motion with build- 

 ing ; hens sit ; geese and ducks lay ; pheasants 

 crow ; the ring-dove coos ; young lambs ap- 

 pear ; the throstle sings ; and lastly the bee 

 issues forth with his vernal trumpet to tell us 

 news of sunshine and flowers. 



In nature there is nothing melancholy. 



Frogs which during winter lay in a torpid 

 state at the bottom of ponds and ditches, early 

 in this month rise to the surface of the water in 

 vast swarms. The linnet, the gold-finch, the 

 golden- crested wren, and the green- finch are in 

 song ; the blackbird and the turkey lay ; house- 

 pigeons sit ; and the viper uncoils itself from 

 its winter sleep. The wheatear, or English Or- 

 tolan (saxicola oenanthe) again pays its annual 

 visit, leaving England in September. The gan- 

 nets or Soland geese, resort in March to the 

 Hebrides, and other rocky islands of North 

 Britain, to make their nests and lay their eggs 

 In March and April before pairing-time, star- 



