280 Nature s Lady Day. 



two eras, as it were, of the year. The first marks 

 the departure of tlie winter birds and the coming of 

 the spring visitors ; the second, in reverse order, 

 marks the departure of the summer birds and the 

 appearance of the vanguard of the winter ones. In 

 the ten da3-s or fortnight succeeding Lady day ( old 

 style) — say from the 6th of April to the 20th — 

 gi'eat changes take place in the fauna and flora ; or, 

 rather, those changes which have long been slowly 

 maturing become visible. The nightingales arrive 

 and sing, and with them the white butterfly appears. 

 The swallow comes, and the wind-anemone blooms 

 in the copse. Finally the cuckoo cries, and at the 

 same time the pale lilac cuckoo-flower shows in the 

 moist places of the mead. 



The exact dates, of course, vary with the char- 

 acter of the season and the locality ; but speaking 

 generally', jon should begin to keep a keen look-out 

 for these signs of spring about old Lady day. In 

 the spring of last 3'ear, in a warm district, the night- 

 ingale sang on the 12th of April, a swallow appeared 

 on the 13th, and the note of the cuckoo was heard 

 on the 15th. No great reliance should be put upon 

 precise dates, because in the first place the}' vary an- 

 nually, and in the next an observer can, in astro- 

 nomical language, only sweep a limited area, and 

 that but imperfectl}^ ; so that it is very likely some 

 ploughboy who thinks nothing of it — except to 

 immediatel}' imitate it — hears the cuckoo forty- 

 eight hours before those who have been listening 

 most carefully. So that these dates are not given 

 because they are of any intrinsic value, but simply 

 for illustration. On the 14th of April ( the same 



