9 8 MARCH 



nest-making, and in the other saw the eggs before we 

 heard the song. The experience seems quite to upset the 

 theory as to &quot; why birds sing.&quot; 



Perhaps the blackbird is more obstinate than others, 

 more proud to be propositi tenax. January was warm. 

 Flower, insect, bird, and mammal, even the elect of 

 each sort, were deceived. 



As sap foretastes the spring, 

 As Earth ere blossoming 



Thrills 



With far daffodils, 

 And feels her breast turn sweet 

 With the unconceiv&d wheat 



so life prepared for an early year. They burgeoned, they 

 stirred in their cases, they paired, when belated winter 

 came, cold and hard, but gay, nevertheless, with sun 

 and midday warmth. The rest were checked ; but the 

 blackbirds, and indeed the tits, safe in their holes, per 

 sisted. They would not confess to an ill calculation. 



We have often to lament tragedies among the early 

 nests. The chaffinch that built on the apple bough 

 before a suspicion of leaf or flower hooded the work, 

 mossed and Hchened her nest to a state of perfect neatness 

 and no little likeness to the grey-green of the bark ; but 

 the owl, or some such &quot;plaguey wildfowl/* saw and 

 snatched. The thrush who built for all to see was driven 

 from her roofless pitch by snow and hail ; and the sky- 

 blue eggs sticking to the once polished cup were left to 

 decay or discovery by rats, that had not yet left the gar 

 dens where they find refuge from winter starvation. We 

 have to chronicle in some bitter springs a succession of 

 such tragedies, or failures, sometimes most bitterly felt. 

 The birds will bring food again and again to the nest 

 where no live young remain. Rabbits will suffer in like 



