NATURE IN JULY. 



I. 



Miss Norah Hopper in some verses written on July says : 



1 Cuckoos shouting in the woods; landrails craking, 



Nightingales the livelong night on thorns their songbooks making.' 



Unfortunately Miss Hopper has fallen into a grave error in 

 these two lines, for the Cuckoo does not "shout" in July, 

 neither does the Nightingale make its songbook on thorns the 

 livelong July night. Neither bird sings after June, although it 

 is true I have heard the Cuckoo during the first day or two 

 in July, and Philomel on the 3<Dth June ; the song of the latter 

 bird was then very feeble and it gave utterance to a hoarse kind 

 of croak. Landrails may be heard craking, it is one of the chief 

 bird sounds in July. How curious it is to note that the 

 Corncrake should take to the ground so much during its sojourn 

 amongst us, and yet a migratory bird ! It is with difficulty the 

 bird is made to rise, and it delights in running through the 

 waving cornfields rather than flying. 



We have during this month been on a fishing excursion or 

 two, and noted how pleasant it is for an angler to be a Naturalist. 

 An angler, if he be a Nature lover too, notices and appreciates 

 the wild life which is going on around him, and it may be as 

 well for me to endeavour to sketch one of the delightful scenes 

 in which I have participated. 



By the way, Professor Warde Fowler, if I mjstake not, 

 merged into a Naturalist after being an angler. And what 

 of old Izaak Walton? He did, indeed, possess a Nature soul, 

 and well can I imagine him and listening to the Nightingale 

 then saying: "Lord, what music hast Thou provided for the 

 Saints in Heaven when Thou afforded to bad men such music 

 on earth!" 



