NATURAL APPEARANCES 



Sweet l yes ;' the nightingale replies ; 



For I'm the harbinger of spring ; 

 And to confirm the same,' she cries, 



Hark ! don't you hear yon cuckoo sing '; " 



The nightingale is heard soon after the arrival of 

 the swallow. He sings by day as well as by night, 

 but in the day-time his voice is drowned among the 

 multitude of performers ; in the evening it is heard 

 alone: whence arises the common opinion that it 

 sings only by night. 



Birds are now busied in pairing, and building their 

 nests, in which they exhibit the most admirable in- 

 stinctive peculiarities, 



" Some to the holly hedge 

 Nestling repair; and to the thicket some; 

 Some to the rude protection of the thorn 

 Commit their feeble offspring : the cleft tree 

 Offers its kind concealment to a few ; 

 Their food its insects, and its moss their nests ; 

 Others apart, far in the grassy dale 

 Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave ; 

 But most in woodland solitudes delight, 

 In unfrequented glooms, or shaggy hanks, 

 Steep, and divided by a babbling brook, 

 Whose murmurs sooth them all the live-long day, 

 When by kind duty fix'd." 



Another of the most striking events of this month 

 is the renewal of the note of the cuckoo, which is 

 generally heard about the middle of April. This 

 circumstance has commanded attention in all coun- 

 tries ; and several rustic sayings, and the names of 



