204 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



post, and goes off like a bullet after the other, for she 

 is his wife, and the little ruddy wren feels the urgency 

 of love in warm winter weather just as strongly as the 

 big ruddy pheasant. 



THE PLOVER, TOO. 



Look at the peewits, too, wheeling by hundreds 

 over plough-land and stubble. They still flock to- 

 gether, and still utter their plaintive winter note, 

 " Pee-ee," as they rise at your approach ; but here 

 and there you will see one strong-winged bird whirl, 

 swoop, and ricochet as it almost seems, from the 

 ground with the drunken ecstasy of flight that 

 marks the wooing peewit; and as he shoots aloft 

 before another swoop you hear the rollicking " Pee- 

 a-weet, pee-wit" that has been unheard since the 

 spring. No matter what severities the New Year's 

 weather may bring, we have passed the shortest day 

 of winter, and even in December Nature has turned 

 her face towards spring. She may have to mark 

 time for weary weeks or months later ; but Nature 

 never goes back. 



