28 COUNTRY RAMBLES. 



How glad it makes one feel to see the young Lambs for the first 

 time. On the hillside they were, quite happy and frolicsome. How 

 pleasant the cries of the youngsters and their mothers, a treble and 

 bass note respectively. Round the fold several Rooks and Starlings 

 were feeding, and, as I stood watching, a Green Plover lapped 

 overhead. The House Sparrows are building, at least I saw one this 

 morning on a roof with a stick in its beak as if she meant business. 



The Thrush and Blackbird were silent, but a Great Titmouse was 

 in a tremendous flurry of exicitement. He utters a sort of chrrrrrrrrrrr 

 and then a "pink" like the Chaffinch. How conspicuous he is in his 

 breast of yellow, white cheeks and black collar. A few Yellow Buntings 

 and Sparrows were hawking round some haystacks, and presently a 

 Kestrel appeared up aloft. He sailed round, then appeared on tremulous 

 wings hovering like a Skylark, then motionless. I was anxiously 

 waiting for the lightning dash to the earth, but it did not come, and 

 he shook himself and passed out of sight. I saw a pair of Coal Tits; 

 they uttered a very weak, squeaking sort of note. 



I forgot to mention that on the 17th I found in my garden a 

 caterpillar of the Wall Butterfly; it was hibernating in some decaying 

 leaves. This afternoon a friend called to tell me a Robin 

 was in his garden and could not fly. I brought the bird into the 

 house. It was a female, and I should say a last year's bird. Its tail 

 feathers were very wet and matted, otherwise it seemed well, with 

 plenty in its crop. In the drawing-room the Redbreast soon made 

 herself at home, hopping along with those long legs at express speed, 

 perching on the chairs and whatnot. She fed on some bread crumbs 

 every now and then, and was as tame as a hand-reared bird. Alter 

 drying its fearthers and giving it a drink of water I set the dapper little 

 bird free. 



19th. -On the 13th of this month a colony of Bats emerged from 

 their retreats and flitted about the heads of pedestrians near the 

 Mansion House, London. One or two specimens of the Long-eared 

 Bat were observed. 



Mr. J. M. Bacon, the hero of many balloon ascents, tells us that he 

 has found a Blue Fly buzzing about in the air at a height of 8,000 

 feet M. C. Flammarion tells of White Butterflies being seen at a 

 height of 3,280 feet. The first-named balloonist remarks that his 

 experience has been that winged creatures of every kind have been 

 left behind long before the first thousand feet were reached. He goes 

 on to say that the height at which the Swift is flying is surmounted 

 with the first leap into space, and even when sailing at the lowest levels 



