240 SPRING. 



long -eared owl, are characteristic of scenes rather than 

 of seasons. 



It is the smaller birds that mark the seasons with 

 the greatest distinctness ; and even they are not a 

 general or a serviceable kalendar. The season of the 

 year is first indicated by a few mid-day notes, by the 

 red breast, the wren, and the thrushes ; and that often 

 happens before the summer strangers come, or the 

 winter ones retire. In different parts of the country 

 the strangers arrive at times so different, that the 

 noting of the days is no guide to the first seeing or 

 hearing of them. The appearance and first song of 

 birds, are, like all other seasonal phenomena, part of 

 the history of the year, and of value retrospectively in 

 telling what has been, though not of the smallest use 

 in telling what is to be. So little, indeed, is known of 

 the true philosophy of the year, that the character of 

 one month, or in the mountainous regions, the character 

 of one day, throws very little light upon that of the rest. 

 And yet there should be nothing in this matter itself 

 that should render it more difficult and uncertain than 

 many other matters of which our knowledge is very 

 accurate. Perhaps the cause may be that, with all 

 persons, it is still made coo much a matter of pro- 

 phecy; that we draw the inference without having 

 consulted the series of facts that would warrant us in 

 drawing it. If we were on the surface of a wide plain, 

 with uniform regions all around us, the matter would 

 be easy ; but the corn-field, the moor, the forest, and 

 the mountain, are all so many difficulties to us ; and 

 even the sea, at the same time that it enriches and 



