314 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



" goes back " later in the season, and loses its former 

 progress. 



Lady-day (old style) forms with Michaelmas the two 

 eras, as it were, of the year. The first marks the 

 departure of the winter birds and the coming of the 

 spring visitors ; the second, in reverse order, marks 

 the departure of the summer birds and the appear- 

 ance of the vanguard of the winter ones. In the ten 

 days or fortnight succeeding Lady-day (old style) 

 say from the 6th of April to the 20th great changes 

 take place in the fauna and flora ; or, rather, those 

 changes which have long been slowly maturing become 

 visible. The nightingales arrive and sing, and with 

 them the white butterfly appears. The swallow comes, 

 and the wind-anemone blooms in the copse. Finally, 

 the cuckoo cries, and at the same time the pale lilac 

 cuckoo-flower shows in the moist places of the mead. 



The exact dates, of course, vary with the character 

 of the season and the locality; but, speaking gener- 

 ally, you should begin to keep a keen lookout for 

 these signs of spring about old Lady-day. In the 

 spring of last year, in a warm district, the nightingale 

 sang on the I2th of April, a swallow appeared on the 

 I3th, and the note of the cuckoo was heard on the 

 1 5th. No great reliance should be put upon precise 

 dates, because in the first place they vary annually, 

 and in the next an observer can, in astronomical 

 language, only sweep a limited area, and that but 

 imperfectly ; so that it is very likely some plough- 

 boy who thinks nothing of it, except to immediately 



