104 SPRING. 



lowed by frost, if it do not happen when the season is 

 far advanced. The dry thaw is the one that ushers in 

 the spring most pleasantly and most certainly, and it 

 is so far fortunate that it is the most common in those 

 regions where, from the length of the winter, vegeta- 

 tion requires to be called soonest into action. Those 

 who have observed how very rapidly a few sunny days, 

 with a warm wind, clear away the four or five months' 

 snows in the northern parts of Europe, and even in 

 some of the glens towards the north of Scotland, and 

 how very soon the earth is gay with vegetation, the 

 woods resounding with song, and the air filled with in- 

 sects, will not envy the inhabitants of countries a little 

 warmer, the conflict which they must witness between 

 a doubtful winter and a doubtful spring, during the 

 months of January, February, and often the greater 

 part of March. When the snow has nearly disap- 

 peared, and a little remains only in the shade of woods, 

 hedges, and rocks, it is delightful to walk abroad. 

 The birds have now withdrawn from the farm-yards, as 

 well as from the shelter of the woods. The thrush 

 and blackbird are scouring the hedge bottoms in 

 quest of slugs and snail shells, which have then made 

 retreats there, and where they are numerous, are very 

 destructive to the young crops. But the birds al- 

 luded to make terrible havoc among them, and in the 

 neighbourhood of a coppice which affords them nesting 

 places, the hedge sides may be found so covered with 

 empty and broken shells, as to have some resemblance 

 to a beach where the sea casts up similar exuviae. 

 It is difficult, indeed, to say which of the birds is 

 at this early season the most useful to man; they 



