24 
NATURE NOTES. 
“ The skylark warbles high 
His trembling thrilling ecstacy, 
And, lessening from the dazzled sight, 
Melts into air and liquid light.” 
Though the aspect may be as wintry as in December, and 
the soaking rain as remorseless as only a February downpour 
can be, and we have yet before us the boisterous and cutting 
blasts of March, Spring nevertheless is in the air : “ The flowers 
appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds is 
come.” It is an old belief that St. Valentine's Day (need we 
add February 14th ?) is the occasion chosen by the birds to take 
upon themselves the cares of housekeeping, and that in fact 
“their anthemes sweet, devized of love’s prayse” may be con- 
sidered specially as variations of “ Home, sweet home” as well 
as their contribution of happiness to the grand Benedicite of 
Creation. 
The old German name for February was Sprokkelmonat (the 
sprouting month), and all grafting, pruning, and shifting of trees 
that has been neglected or postponed must be no longer over- 
looked. Spenser in his “ Faerie Queene ” represents the sym- 
bolic figure of February as bearing 
“ Tooles to prune the trees before the pride 
Of hasting Prime did make them burgein round.” 
The farmer, despite the weather, is busily engaged, for “ he that 
regardeth the clouds shall not reap ” hereafter, and a neglected 
seed time is a season hopelessly lost. Hence an old writer, not 
unmindful of St. Valentine, writes of February — 
“ Spend not thy time in fruitless wooing, 
Be sure to keep the plough a going.” 
In the old picturesque days before the introduction of machinery, 
a thoroughly wet or snowy day led to an adjournment to the 
barn, and the threshing of such quantity of corn as the swinging 
flails could compass. In the frosty air the resounding axe of the 
woodman as the fragrant chips fly before his vigorous strokes, 
and then the dull crash of the falling tree, are very familiar 
sounds. The “February” of Spenser bears amongst other tools 
— “ an hatchet keene, with which he felled wood.” 
Nature-lovers may be reminded that on the nth of this 
month died William Shenstone, whose writings abound with 
happy allusions to rural life ; while on the 27th, John Evelyn, 
the author of “ Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees,” and 
many other excellent works, passed away. Had not chrono- 
logical difficulties stood in the way, we may gladly assume that 
each of them would have been a distinguished member of the 
Selborne Society. 
F. Edward Hulme. 
