NATURE'S CALENDAR 



39 



these speedily blossom into the first flow- 

 ers of spring. Such are the liv^erwort or 

 hepatica, and that most fragrant and 

 exquisite of early blossoms, the trailing 

 arbutus, or epigaea. These are soon fol- 

 lowed by others, but north of the Delaware 

 Valley one cannot hope to make much of 

 a bouquet before April. 



Until the cold diminishes and vegeta- 

 tion springs up, insect life cannot flourish 

 largely, and hence fly-catching birds, and 

 the many other creatures that depend 

 upon insects for food, are not to be ex- 

 pected. Clouds of gnats and the water- 

 bugs appear as soon as the ponds are 

 open, skating about the placid surface in 

 search of prey, and such hardy folk as the 

 spiders and beetles wake up and begin to 

 travel. " Very early in the spring," says 

 Packard, " stones can be upturned, ants' 

 nests searched, and the muddy waters 

 sifted for species [of beetles] not met 

 with at other times of the year." Even 

 butterflies maybe collected now— certain 

 species of tortoise-shell ( Vanessa) and 

 angle-wing {Grapta). 



The streams, relieved of their fetters of 

 ice and swollen by melting snow and rain, 

 widely overflow their banks and begin to 

 teem with life recalled from deep waters 

 or aroused from chambers in the mud. 

 Hosts of small fishes ascend the streams, 

 explore every tributary, and spread far 

 and wide over the flooded meadows, find- 

 ing an abundance of food and growing 



March 4 



