FEBRUARY. 33 



where the trout-stream winds past osier-bed or covert. 

 Even the skeins of wild pink-footed geese exhibit a 

 tendency to disentangle themselves ; for often now, 

 besides the great clanging squadrons in V-shaped 

 formation, you may see a solitary pair of geese 

 winging their way across the sky ; and the voice 

 of Spring is calling to large and small alike, for the 

 little tomtit in the hedge could not make more fuss 

 about his new wife if she were the Queen of Sheba. 



SPRING MARCHES. 



February 27. Frost and snow may return and 

 return again ; but spring marches. Pass into the 

 sheltered shrubbery out of the east wind that brings 

 the keen "nip" of the frozen Baltic, and look around 

 you. It is spring everywhere. That hedge-sparrow, 

 nervously flicking his wings as he leads his wife from 

 bush tobush,has evidently chosen alreadya nesting-site 

 very near the spot where you stand. The dark green 

 lacework of the cypress at your side is embroidered 

 with myriad points of gold, the swelling flower-buds 

 of the spring. On the lilac you can already tell by 

 their bulging points which twigs will bear bunches 

 of flowers and which leaves only. See those untidy 

 hay-like wisps still clinging to the larch branches, 

 whose leaf-buds are almost bursting. Last summer 

 there was a wild bindweed straggling over half of 

 that larch, starring it with large white convolvulus 

 flowers. Those hay-like strands are all that is left of 

 its unchecked luxuriance ; but follow them to the 

 ground, and you will find half a dozen new, vigorous 



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