CHAPTER XI 



A mountain walk Advent of Spring Its effect on insects, flowers, and 

 birds Sable singers and weird serenades" Not by his bill we know 

 the Woodcock." 



March 30^. Had a long tramp over the mountains ; the 

 sun quite hot in the valley, almost oppressive after the 

 recent cold spells, and making one long to be free of winter 

 flannels. Thrushes singing everywhere, likewise Hedge 

 Sparrows and Chaffinches ; Sparrows busily engaged in 

 stuffing the holes below the spouts full of straw, and 

 Starlings twittering on the chimney-tops, all forgetful 

 of late privations, and as heedless of any further cold 

 weather that may be yet to come. On the mountain, the 

 advent of spring is necessarily retarded considerably beyond 

 the period when its influence is felt in the valleys below, but 

 to-day all the world is humming, and the tune must be 

 piped the quicker if the minstrel's time is curtailed. The 

 cold damp peat is slow to start to life, but once the process 

 has fairly begun, progress is rapid. But yester-week winter 

 held the hills in close embrace March had come in like a 

 lion, as the old saw says, but to-day the balmy south wind 

 is driving him like snow before a fresh from the innermost 

 nooks of the corries. Insects are springing to life from the 

 bed of every mountain rill, and the eager trout are sucking 

 them down as they float on every eddy ; on the gravel beds 

 Grey Wagtails are nimbly joining in the pursuit, and the 

 Dipper, hastening past, has his bill filled with them for the 

 callow brood in his " moss-theckit hame " beneath the linn 

 yonder. The influence of spring is felt in every breath we 

 draw, and in every prospect that fills the eye, from the 

 greening of the brake where the alder has hung forth her 

 catkins, to the restless band of Titlarks that are dancing 



79 



