ILLUSIONS OF SPRING 



of light, instead of looking, as most planets and 

 stars, just a round speck of blue or yellow light. 



It is not only the brilliant shine in the morning 

 and early afternoon that gives this spring illusion. 

 On the southern sides of coppices and umber woods 

 open to the sun, hazels already show a few catkins 

 lightly dusted with the sulphur-coloured pollen, if 

 not yet the bright red flowers of the other sex. The 

 hedge banks, six feet high in some places in the South 

 of England, are generally the first spots, even among 

 the hills, to answer to a zephyr touch of spring. 

 Here the dog mercury is sure to blossom earlier than 

 elsewhere ; I have found it flowering during bright, 

 bitter weather in the second week of February : here, 

 too, the primroses begin in March. But primroses 

 are winter flowers as well. The best show of them 

 I remember seeing in winter was on December 17, 

 1 900 ; thousands of flowers, rather small, but as 

 yellow and sweet-smelling as those of spring, were 

 fully out among the young hazel shoots, six or seven 

 hundred feet above the sea. 



The Titmice 



Not only birds, but bees and plants, help to make 

 this look and feel of spring. Take titmice : most 

 of these have paired or are pairing blue, marsh, 

 cole, and great titmice, though none begins to build 

 so early as the long-tailed titmouse. The great 

 titmouse has not yet begun his marriage lay which 



