94 APRIL. 



places. On the barren pasture, or bare fallow,, 

 it lays its eggs in a little hollow in the naked 

 earth. They are of a deep ruddy brown, 

 darkly spotted, large, very broad at one end, 

 and very narrow at the other. The curious 

 appearance of these birds, the anxiety of their 

 cries as they wheel about you, their strata- 

 gems to decoy you from their nests, or young 

 ones, neither of which are readily found, in- 

 terest you strongly in their favour. 



Here I must stop : were I to proceed to the 

 lake and the reedy marsh, to the large flaggy 

 nests of the water-hen, the coot, the wild- 

 duck, and goose, the snipe, the plover, etc. I 

 might write a volume, yet all and each, in 

 material, in curious construction, in colour of 

 the eggs, in picturesqueness of situation, have 

 distinguishing characteristics, strongly marked 

 by that hand of varied and exhaustless beauty, 

 which has constructed so wonderfully the 

 whole world, and to all the myriads of living 

 creatures has given so peculiar a difference of 

 figure, habits, and disposition. 



April is so called from the Latin Aprilis, 

 which is derived from Aperire, to open. The 



