c 



FEBRUARY 



LOATHED in a dark Skie-colour, carrying 

 in his Right hand the Sign Pisces. 



SPRING PROPHETS 



THE pipistrelle the countryman's " fluttermouse " 

 ranks among our minor Spring prophets 

 A when it appears on a February evening - 



Harbinger sometimes in broad daylight hawking up 

 and down a village street to sample the gnat- 

 supply, and it attracts, perhaps, more attention than 

 the first swallow. One wonders that it can find anything 

 worth eating; but there are few birds at present to 

 dispute its fishing-rights. It will be different when the 

 martins come home to the village, and the little dusky- 

 grey, spotted flycatcher, rivals against which the bat 

 will occasionally make spiteful demonstrations. It is not 

 uncommon for a pipistrelle to attack and buffet, with its 

 leathern wings, an innocent flycatcher, showing the 

 while every symptom of extreme jealousy of one it con- 

 siders as a trespasser on its own preserves. It is strange 

 17 c 



