RETURN OF SPRING. 
427 
Flies and certain coleoptera are revived from their 
hybernations. In some years however, the month 
of February brings us acquainted with the greater 
number of these things, though on the other hand 
they are not seldom deferred by protracted incle¬ 
mencies till April, or even May, and the cold winds 
and frosts of March, in years even generally fa¬ 
vorable, interfere temporarily both with animal and 
vegetable creation, suspending the songs, nestling, 
and resuscitations of the one, and the blossomings 
of the other. The spring of the year 1839 was 
particularly forward, but in March, severe frosts 
occurring with the sharp winds, punished most 
unusually the Laurels , Laurustinuses , &c. which 
had put forth very early shoots, and though the 
sun shone out brightly, put a stop to nearly all the 
music of the groves, the Chaffinch and Blackbird 
alone remaining undaunted. These frosts however 
must be regarded as in one sense salutary to vege¬ 
tation since they restrain the blossoms which must 
otherwise be too greatly in advance of summer heat. 
Notwithstanding March winds and asperities how¬ 
ever, those hardy hedge shrubs,—the wild rose , the 
thorn and honeysuckle are found to be putting out 
their first buds in preparation for leafing. To the 
above named plants may be added the following 
which disclose themselves to us in our varied walks, 
gradually expanding their blossoms to put to shame 
the simpler beauties of the previous month,—the 
hairy cardamine , the barren strawberry , the wood 
sorrel, the chick-weed, the bearsfoot, the ground ivy , 
the whitlow-grass , the golden saxifrage , the lesser 
perry winkle. 
Hedgehogs .—As a labourer was engaged in re¬ 
moving an old heap of straw in an orchard in the 
beginning of March, 1839, he observed several runs 
in the grass as if rats had frequented the spot, but 
when he got to the bottom of the rubbish, he found 
3 c 2 
