56 MARCH. 



because the days now began in length to exceed 

 the nights. Lend also means spring ; therefore 

 it was their spring month. It was called, too, 

 by them Rhed-monath, from Rheda, one of their 

 deities, to whom sacrifices were offered in 

 March, and from raed, council, March being 

 the month wherein wars or expeditions were 

 undertaken by the Gothic tribes. They also 

 called it Hlyd-monath, or the Stormy-month. 



Bats and reptiles break up their winter sleep; 

 the little smelts or sparlings run up the softened 

 rivers to spawn ; the fieldfare and woodcock 

 return to their northern quarters ; the rooks are 

 all in motion with building, and it is said by 

 gentlemen who have observed them for many 

 successive years, that the commencement of 

 their building is so exactly timed, that it is 

 often on the same day of each returning spring ; 

 hens sit; geese and ducks lay; pheasants crow; 

 the ring-dove coos; young lambs appear; the 

 throstle sings ; and lastly the bee issues forth 

 with his vernal trumpet to tell us news of sun- 

 shine and flowers. 



In nature there is nothing melancholy. 

 Frogs which during winter lay in a torpid state 

 at the bottom of ponds and ditches, early in 

 this month rise to the surface of the water in 

 vast swarms. The linnet, the gold-finch, the 

 golden-crested wren, and the green-finch are in 



