A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



return to the type of two years ago — less 

 hail and snow, but by no means the mild 

 season that was due. By and by, probably, 

 the meteorological influences will get back 

 into the old ruts again, and we shall have 

 once more the regular alternation of mild 

 and severe winters. During very open 

 winters, like that of 1879-80, nature in my 

 latitude, eighty miles north of New York, 

 hardly shuts up house at all. That season 

 I heard a little piping frog on the 7th of 

 December, and on the i8th of January, in 

 a spring run, I saw the common bullfrog 

 out of his hibernaculum, evidently thinking 

 it was spring. A copperhead snake was 

 killed here about the same date ; caterpil- 

 lars did not seem to retire, as they usually 

 do, but came forth every warm day. The 

 note of the bluebird was heard nearly every 

 week all winter, and occasionally that of 

 the robin. Such open winters make one 

 fear that his appetite for spring will be 

 blunted when spring really does come ; but 

 he usually finds that the April days have 

 the old relish. April is that part of the 

 season that never cloys upon the palate. 

 It does not surfeit one with good things, 

 but provokes and stimulates the curiosity, 



42 



