THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 47 
a dandelion gone to seed. ‘Truly ifthe winter is tempered by many 
a suggestion of the renewal of life, the spring is branded with many 
a reminder of the coming of death. Life and Death, what are they 
but the swinging of a pendulum,—the one as sure to succeed the 
other, as the other is certain to give place to the one. Each, while 
it lasts, contains an ever increasing germ of the other. Neither can 
be jiza/ as long as the law exists.” __ 
Mr. Bolles is a very graphic writer, and his descriptions abound 
in poetic similitudes, and striking philosophic analogies. 
An hour’s walk in the woods on a May morning revealed an 
interesting page in the year book. The increase of heat does not 
seem creative, for in the animal and vegetative life there is perzodicity 
—that takes time by the forelock—anticipates, as it were, time and 
seasons, which are only co-ordinate, for when the Ground Hog’s 
hibernating nap of five months is finished, he arises,* shakes him- 
self, and meets the day. 
The Robin in his matin song anticipates the coming of daylight ; 
yestermorn he began his canticle when near objects could only be 
indistinctly seen by human eyes, and the Wren and Pewit Flycatcher 
speedily followed suit. 
The woodland flowers are belated this year, but they had made 
every preparation to jump into-being, and by the time that the ther- 
mometer had risen to 60 degrees at noon of the 1st of May, the Saz- 
guinarias and Claytonzas had opened their blossoms, andthe Dicentras 
and Lrythroniums had shot and extended their flower stems and 
formed incipient flowers. 
In bird life almost every hour announces a new arrival. The 
Large Flycatcher’s (AZytarchus crinitus) coarse note resounded 
through the forest this morning, and not far off, the precipitating 
notes of the Winter Wren were echoed back, and on moving on into 
the forest depths, the peculiar notes of the Golden-crowned Thrush 
met the ear. He sang quite timidly at first, as if fearing to be 
thought intrusive, like a novice in the art of oratory making his debut, 
yet not quite sure of a favorable reception. Then immediately after- 
wards, on coming to the forest margin, the rapid song of the Purple 
Linnet was heard for the first time since last July. This bird is now 
a laggard ; many times we have heard his song during the first week 
in April. 
*Their orbit is co-relative with the calendar. 
