44 JANUARY. 



dropped now in southern counties, but the more 

 common time of lambing is in March. The field- 

 fares, redwings, skylarks, and titlarks resort to 

 watered meadows for food, and are, in part, sup- 

 ported by the gnats which are on the snow near the 

 water. The house-sparrow chirps, and the bat is 

 now seen. As the cold grows more intense, various 

 kinds of sea-fowl quit the bleak open shores, and 

 come up the rivers, where they offer an unusual prey 

 to the fowler. 



RURAL OCCUPATIONS. 



The most important business of the farmer this 

 month, is to feed and comfort his dependent animals: 

 his cattle in their stalls and straw-yards ; his sheep 

 in warm and sheltered enclosures; giving them hay, 

 straw, turnips, etc. : looking well after his flocks 

 that they be not lost in snows ; and in forward dis- 

 tricts, as in the neighbourhood of London, housing 

 and carefully feeding young lambs and calves for 

 the market. Bee-hives require to be examined, and, 

 if necessary, food supplied. This may be done by 

 cutting a shoot of the elder-tree of about ten inches 

 long, and of the thickness of a finger, slicing off 

 one side of it, and taking out the pith, so as to form 

 a trough, the joints of the shoot being left to form 

 each end. This must be filled with honey, or, in 

 want of that, with sugar and beer, or sugar and 

 water, of the same consistency as honey, and gently 

 thrust into the mouth of the hive. The bees will 



