THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



Now our ramble must draw to its close, and as we wend our way home- 

 ward in the dusk of evening, we see the moths in numbers at the sallows. 

 I need not, however, give a list of the names, nor those of the larvse we 

 might find if we searched with a lantern, as I have already done so in 

 former volumes of the " Young Naturalist/' and to them I must refer my 

 readers. 



If we stayed later we might perhaps be so fortunate as to hear the dulcet 

 song of the nightingale, and truly that prince of songsters is worth listening 

 to as he pours out his gush of harmony from the branch of some bush or 

 tree, his melodious notes following one another so rapidly and in such quick 

 time that it seems— as Coleridge says : 



" As if he were fearful tha't an April night 

 Would be too short for him, to utter forth 

 His love chant, and disburthen his full soul 

 Of all its music." 



Possibly by good fortune, we might hear two nightingales singing against 

 one another, if so then 



1 ' Far and near, 

 In wood and thicket, over the wide grove 

 They answer and provoke each other's songs, 

 With skirmish and capricious passagings, 

 And mumurs musical and swift, jug, jug ; 

 And one low piping sound more sweet than all, 

 Stirring the air with such an harmony ; 

 That should you close your eyes you might almost 

 Forget it was not day." 



I have said nothing about the botanical features of April, but the following 

 trees are now leafing, or will be in the course of the first fortnight of the 

 month : birch, sallow, filbert, sycamore, and elm. Later on in the month, 

 the apple, chestnut, poplar, oak, and mountain-ash leaf, and at the end of the 

 month the lime, maple, and beech follow their example. Last of all, at the 

 end of the month, comes the time of leafing of the ash. The plants I have 

 found in flower in April include the following : Vinca major, Anthiscus 

 sylvestris, Petasites vulgaris, Muscari racemosum, Anemone Pulsatilla, A. 

 nemorosa, Ranunculus auricomus, Viola sylvatica, Cerastium triviale, Poten- 

 tilla fragariastrum, Saxifraga tridaclyliles, Myosotis collina, Primula 

 elatior, Arum maculatum, Vicia saliva, Lathyrus aphaca, Alchemilla vulgaris, 

 Bryonia dioica, and Lamium amplexicaule ; but some of these do not flower 

 in backward seasons before May. 

 Cambridge. 



