94 SPRING- 



What may become of these premature children of the 

 year it is not easy to say. The gnats are but beings of 

 an hour at any season ; and, so that they have sun 

 during that hour, then the enjoyment may be the same 

 in January as in June. As for the bee and the bat 

 again, the returning cold may send them back to the 

 retreats which they have left. The only part of the 

 economy of its being, which the early gnat may not 

 accomplish, is the preparation of a new brood, but that 

 can make no more blank in nature than the barrenness 

 of some of the very early flowers. The water, too, and, 

 in all probability, the ice and snow, are filled with 

 countless myriads of the tiny race, all ready to come 

 forth, when the temperature of the places where they 

 are, shall become such as so waken them out of their 

 nidus. 



If the fine weather continue for a day or two, other 

 creatures begin to feel that it is the spring. The red- 

 breast leaves the cottage window and the crumbs, an d 

 hops from spray to spray, examining if there be any 

 larva of insects yet stirring in the buds. The little 

 kitty wren (troglodytes europaus), which the poetic 

 fancy of the rustics has given to " robin" as an help- 

 mate, follows the same course ; and though the smaller 

 golden-crested wren (regulus auricapillus) does not 

 venture so near our habitations, yet they may be seen 

 hopping on the twigs in the pine forests, or darting in 

 a hunting excursion among the tipulidce that are sport- 

 ing on the sunny side. The house sp'arrow, too, ceases 

 to contend with the domestic poultry for its crumb, 

 drops its shrilly twitter to a softer call, snatches up a bit 

 of straw in its bill, and mounting the cottage thatch, 



