POET PHILLIP. 117 



doubt, the most wonderful of the many wonderful phe- 

 nomena in nature. Instinct here stands forth clear and 

 unguided, and the actions of the birds tliemselves arise 

 from causes over which they can have no control. So 

 beautifully and with such precision are they arranged, 

 that we can time the arrival and departure of our regular 

 summer and winter migrants almost to a day ; and each 

 particular class is the harbinger of a particular season. 

 All this is far more apparent in northern countries, 

 where the vicissitudes of climate are more sensibly felt 

 than in the warmer latitudes of the south. Let us turn 

 for awhile to England, and here we shall find that the 

 opening of the first violet in the sheltered bank of the 

 village lane welcomes the first spring migrant to our 

 shores ; and no sooner do the rude blasts of autumn 

 sweep through the forest glade, whirling the dead leaves 

 on high, and shaking the last tottering acorn from the 

 oak, than the chattering of the fieldfares high in air, and 

 the keeper's report that he has flushed the first woodcock 

 in some favourite spenny, warn us that winter is again 

 at hand. The very operations of the husbandman and 

 sportsman are in a great measure regulated by these 

 migrations. They form a useful and instructive guide to 

 the farmer, who will take the trouble to observe them, 

 and the appearance of the swallows on some favourite 

 stream, whither in early spring they dash backwards and 

 forwards over its margin after the "glad May-fly," just 

 awakening to its ephemeral life, or when, in the haze of 

 an autumn evening, they congregate in flocks on the 



