40 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



brings the first bees to the crocuses. A change of 

 colour and of consistency passes over the tree-tops as 

 they begin to show the purples and browns of swelling 

 buds. The month of general awakening is to come, but 

 is anticipated by the first sporadic revivals. Blind- 

 worms and newts still sleep in heaps of loose stones 

 and piles of rubbish, but the toad is once more abroad 

 at dusk and the surface of the pond is rippled by 

 spawning frogs, which puff out their lily-white throats 

 and croon a resonant double bass. The running 

 spiders which race over bank sides are always the first 

 to respond by their re-appearance to the revivifying 

 warmth of the sun. Down at the brook we welcome 

 the " skaters " (Hydrometra), which run upon the 

 surface of the water, and the whirligig-beetles, which 

 again weave their mazy dance, foretokens of the great 

 stirring and quickening which is now at hand. Snugly 

 stowed away in winter-quarters insects have nothing 

 to fear from the frost. Split open this dry and hollow 

 stem of hemlock or cow-parsnip, and we shall be 

 surprised at the variety of its tenants— lanky, trans- 

 parent-looking spiders, delicate gauze-winged gnats, 

 and a fat caterpillar which has spun a white web for his 

 greater comfort. So little ground is there for the 

 supposition, so generally held, that a hard winter is 

 fatal to noxious insects. As a matter of fact they 

 suffer much more when unseasonable warmth tempts 

 them out before their time. 



