10 
RURAL HOURS. 
ering trees ; but this afternoon tliey were eating the seeds out of 
decayed apples scattered about the orchards. 
Also saw again one of the strange birds — yellow red-polls — we 
watched near the bridge, but could not approach as near as at the 
first interview ; he was in our own garden among the beds, appa- 
rently eating insects as well as maple blossoms. 
Walked in the woods. The fly -honeysuckle is in full leaf, as 
well as in flower ; it is one of our earliest shrubs. We have sev- 
eral varieties of the honeysuckle tribe in this State. The scarlet 
honeysuckle, so common in our gardens, is a native plant foimd 
near New York, and extending to the southward as far as Carolina. 
The fragrant woodbine, also cultivated, is found wild in many woods 
of this State ; the yellow honeysuckle grows in the Catskill Moun- 
tains ; a small variety with greenish yellow flowers, and the hauy 
honeysuckle with pale yellow blossoms and large leaves, are 
among our plants. There are also three varieties of the fly- 
honeysuckle, regular northern plants, one bearing red, another 
purple, another blue berries ; the first is very common here, 
found in every wood ; there is said to be a plant almost identical 
with this in Tartary. 
Friday, \2th. — The aspens are in leaf, and look beautifully on 
the hill-side, their tremulous foliage being among the very earliest 
to play in the spring breezes, as their downy seeds are the first of 
the year to fly abroad ; these are as common in the wood at one 
moment in the spring, as the thistle-down later in the season 
among the fields ; one often sees them lying in httle patches along 
the highway, looking like a powdering of snow-flakes. The birds 
of some more delicate tribes use this down to line their nests — 
the humming-bird, for instance. We have been looking and in- 
