MAY-FLIES IN MARCH 



(ITCHEN ABBAS AND AVINGTON PARK) 



" DAYS of promise " are a common feature of the 

 English spring, when the rough winds sink and shift 

 into the west, and the cold rain draws odours from the 

 earth, and song from the birds, that remind us that 

 winter is left behind. Even then the response of 

 Nature is as hesitating and uncertain as the shifting 

 moods of the March sky ; and the influences which 

 appeal to man seem too subtle or too transient to 

 change the winter habits of birds or beasts. 



Far different is the result of the first really hot days 

 of early spring. When such weather comes in the 

 middle of March, and lasts for more than a day, it 

 affects all wild animals like some beneficent spell. 

 The physical contrast of summer and winter, marching, 

 as it seems, hand in hand, is alone almost sufficient to 

 account for the change. The night frosts are forgotten 

 in the heated air, which dances over the withered 

 grass ; yet the dust, scattered in the high-road, falls on 

 ice-covered pools in the shadow of the fence ; and the 



