202 <FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
raises his arms above his shoulders, and the slender 
boughs became set with green buds. Ata distance the 
corn is easily distinguished from the meadows beside it 
by the different shade of green; grass is a deep green, 
corn appears paler and yet brighter—perhaps the long 
winter has given it the least touch of yellow. Daisies 
‘are up at last—very late indeed. Big humnble-bees, 
grey striped, enter the garden and drone round the 
banks, searching everywhere for a fit hole in which to | 
begin the nest. It is pleasant to hear them; after the 
dreary silence the old familiar burr-rr is very welcome. 
Spotted orchis leaves are up, and the palm-willow bears 
its yellow pollen. Happily, the wild anemones will not 
bear the journey to London, they wither too soon; else 
they would probably be torn up like the violets. Neither 
is there any demand for the white barren strawberry 
blossom, or the purplish ground-ivy among the finely 
marked fern moss. 
The rain falls ; and in the copses of the valley, deep 
and moist, where grey lichen droops from the boughs, 
the thrushes sing all day—so delighted are they to have 
the earth soft again, and so busy with the nesting. At 
four o’clock in the morning the larks begin to sing: they 
will be half an hour earlier next month, adjusting their 
time nicely by the rising of the sun. They sing on till 
after the lamps are lit in the evening. Far back in the 
snow-time a pair of wagtails used to come several times. 
a day close to the windows, their black markings show- 
ing up singularly well against the snow on the ground, 
They seemed to have just arrived. But now the weather 
is open and food plentiful they have left us. The wag- 
tails appear to be the first of the migrant birds to return, 
long before the hail of April rattles against the windows 
and leaps up in the short grass. Out in the hop-gardens 
the poles are placed ready for setting, in conical heaps 
