182 



necessity for sleeping is removed, by artificial 

 warmth and plenty of food, the torpid pro- 

 pensity of this little creature vanishes. 



My aunt remarked that there are many well- 

 known facts of animals being compelled by cir- 

 cumstances to relinquish their strongest cha- 

 racteristics ; for instance, the hyena lives on 

 the roots of fritillary in the unfrequented parts 

 of Africa, but in the neighbourhood of inhabited 

 places he feeds on carrion: and the pied fly- 

 catcher, which lives on soft seeds in this country, 

 is well contented in Norway with flesh dried in 

 smoke. 



The rain, which was incessant for two days 

 and nights, stopped yesterday, and a nice soft 

 wind with a warm sun has so dried the ground, 

 that we have been out almost all the morning. 

 1 find that spring is beginning to advance. The 

 buds of several trees are visibly enlarging, 

 though it will be many weeks before they burst; 

 the catkins of the hazel, which appeared during 

 the winter like little short green spikes, are now 

 lengthened, and so much more open, that each 

 floret is to be sen separately, though none are 

 yet expanded. When we were rambling through 

 the hazel thicket, Mary shewed them to me ; 

 and also the little buds which contain the 

 flowers that afterwards produce the nuts, scat- 

 tered u and down on the branches. It is 



