MARCH. 



" Go, March winds, blow the clouds away ! 

 That April with her sunny smile, 

 May come, and all our hearts beguile." 



1st. The Lion did not arrive to-day, neither did the proverbia 

 Lamb; it was a sort of go-between. Some wind, but nice open day. 

 A little snow and hail fell. Very cold. Birds rather silent to-day. 



2nd. Rain and snow, but Skylark still sings on. 



3rd. Very cold; but I heard the sweetest-voiced Song Thrush 

 imaginable this morning. Hedge Sparrow and Robin singing. 



I received a letter to-day from a gamekeeper friend, who procured 

 for me last month a Ring Dove and a House Sparrow for the purpose 

 f examining their crops. In the former he found nothing but Ivy 

 berries, and in the latter a few grains of Wheat, Oats, and one or two 

 small buds, probably Currant buds. 



I nearly trod upon a Lark to-day; he soared aloft and sung 

 deliciously, but what is this bird language? He could not have been 

 happy because I had disturbed him! We do not surely understand 

 bird nature any more than we do human nature. The Blackbird is 

 very silent. 



4th. Just to remind us that the Spring has not yet arrived, we 

 had a snow and hail storm this morning. Dr. Greene writes me to 

 day that a pair of Blackbirds have at the present time a nest in the Ivy 

 on his garden wall (Belvedere, Kent). 



The Sparrows are dusting, or rather mudding, in the garden. I 

 went a long ramble through some woods to-day, but have not much to 

 report. The wild growing Snowdrops enlivened the somewhat 

 dismal surroundings with their snow-white heads, and the Wild 



