ON HABITS OF OBSERVING. 15 



periodic phenomena, is very striking. We mean 

 not that the incidents of the several kinds above 

 alluded to always fall out on a particular day, 

 though no doubt the averages of many years' obser- 

 vations, taken at intervals, would bring them to a 

 near coincidence. But it is rather the regularity 

 with which they uniformly succeed each other, from 

 which there is little deviation, that is so remarkable. 

 Why the toad should be always a few days later 

 in spawning than the frog ; or why the pheasant 

 should hatch before the partridge, though the latter 

 pairs for the breeding-season long before we hear the 

 sexual crow of the former ; or again, why the 

 apricot should invariably flower a few days before 

 the peach, yet generally come into leaf a day or two 

 later ; these, and a thousand other little matters of 

 the same kind that might be mentioned, furnish 

 much room for reflection to the thoughtful inquirer. 

 Nothing also is more surely regulated by the seasons 

 than the various sounds emitted by different animals, 

 whether the notes of birds, or the cries of insects, &c., 

 which fall so gladly upon the ears of the naturalist, 

 indicating to him the different feelings by which 

 such animals are actuated. The pleasure, indeed, 

 afforded by rural sounds has been often rapturously 

 spoken of by ardent lovers of Nature, and the poet 

 has left us lines on that subject, the beauty and force 

 of which have been frequently alluded to : 



Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, 

 Exhilarate the spirit, and restore 

 The tone of languid nature. 



