76 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



Wagtails first make their appearance. On the fields 

 where grain is being sown various Buntings and Finches 

 congregate, as well as Rooks and Ring Doves. In spite of 

 the pelting showers the ploughman wends his way with 

 his patient team up and down the broad fields, and the 

 smell from the newly turned earth is delicious as the 

 April breezes carry it to the roadside and even into 

 the adjoining woods. How refreshing and yet how 

 tantalising these April showers are ! We see them 

 creeping up from the distant west in frowning masses of 

 dark gray cloud, and the downpour is heralded with a 

 few ominous heavy drops that patter on the wayside. 

 But they vanish almost as quiddy as they come, and 

 the deep blue over the western horizon, and the masses 

 of silvery cloud unerringly inform us of their transient 

 character. Soon the sun beams down upon the wet, 

 steaming earth, and all is gladness once more. And 

 then how fresh the country smells after the rain is over ! 

 The whole atmosphere is steeped in spring ; it is laden 

 with the perfume of flowers and vernal foliage, and 

 resonant with the hum of insects and the glad songs of 

 birds. Each day increases the country's charms, and 

 gradually, almost insensibly, the whole face of Nature 

 beams with spring-tide smiles and vernal graces. 



