the Year. 



At the adaptable starling are to be found with ease 

 Turn of by quick eyes and careful ears : who that has 

 seen the sudden apparition of the bat, or the 

 columnar dance of the ephemeridae, or the 

 flight of the winter-moth along the dishevelled 

 hedgerows : or who that, besides the mistletoe 

 and the ivy, the holly and the fir, the box and 

 the late-flowering clematis, and many other of 

 the green and flowering clans of the forest and 

 the garden, has noted the midwinter-blooming 

 shepherd's purse, healing groundsel, bright 

 chickweed, and red deadnettle, can think of 

 nature as lifeless at this season ? When amid 

 the rains and storms of December an old 

 gardener, instead of saying that spring was on 

 the move, remarked to me that ''Twill be 

 starling days soon,' he gave voice to a truth 

 of observation as impressive as it is beautiful. 

 For often December has not lapsed before the 

 mysterious breeding-change of the Vita Nuova, 

 the New Life that spreads like a flowing wave 

 so early in the coming year will begin to be 

 obvious on the dun-hued lapwing, on the 

 inland-wandering gull, and even on one or 

 other of the small ' clan of the bushes ' more 

 dear and familar to us. On none, however, is 

 the change so marked as on the blithe starling, 

 surely the bird of cheerfulness, for he will sing 

 (does he ever cease that ever-varying call or 



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