86 THE IVY. 



tudes of small winged creatures, resort to them ; 

 and there we see those beautiful animals, the latest 

 birth of the year, the admiral (vanessa atalanta) 

 and peacock (vanessa 16) butterflies, hanging with 

 expanded wings like open flowers themselves, en- 

 joying the sunny gleam, and feeding on the sweet 

 liquor that distils from the nectary of this plant. 

 As this honey is produced in succession by the 

 early or later expansion of the bud, it yields a 

 constant supply of food, till the frosts of Novem- 

 ber destroy the insects, or drive them to their win- 

 ter retreats. Spring arrives; and in the bitter 

 months of March, April, and even May, at times, 

 when the wild products of the field are nearly con- 

 sumed, the ivy ripens its berries, and then almost 

 entirely constitutes the food of the missel thrush, 

 wood-pigeon, and some other birds ; and now these 

 shy and wary birds, that commonly avoid the 

 haunts of man, constrained by hunger, will ap- 

 proach our dwellings, to feed upon the ripe berries 

 of the ivy. Now too the blackbird and the thrush 

 resort to its cover, to conceal their nests. These 

 early-building birds find little foliage at this period 

 sufficient to hide their habitations ; and did not the 

 ivy lend its aid to preserve them, and no great 

 number are preserved, perhaps few nests would be 

 hidden from the young eyes that seek them. The 

 early expansion of the. catkins of the sallow (salix 

 caprea) , and others of the willow tribe, whence the 



