190 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 12. 
Robinson’s Defiance, and is selling by Mr. Henderson of 
Pine-Apple Piace. 
Let the offsets on Vallotu remain as they are till the end 
of next February, then put four or six of them in one pot. 
A 48-sized pot will do for three years to nurse them. Use 
nothing but good, sandy loam, and give them a great deal 
of water all the summer. Totting such slow-growing bulbs 
singly in pots very often ends in failure.] 
THE FIRST SWARMS. 
On Saturday, May the 20th, I had a very fine 
swarm of bees left the hive, and after travelling over shrubs 
of every kind, several hundred yards, they went into my 
seed shop, and took complete possession, and Saturday, 
being market-day, they were no small nuisance to all my 
customers, for not one could enter the shop; at last, my 
shopman used the fumigating bellows, and expelled the 
bees with a double dose of tobacco. They afterwards settled 
outside the shop, and were put into a hive, and seem to be 
going on well, but this cold weather is very much against 
them now,—J. S. Haywood, Wick Nursery, Worcester. 
ARRIVAL OF OUR SUMMER MIGRATORY 
BIRDS. 
As you occasionally, in your Weekly Calendar, give the 
dates of arrival of some of our summer birds of passage, 
I enclose you a short document, which may prove interesting 
to many of your readers, if you consider it worth insertion 
in your publication. I can only say in its behalf, that it is 
compiled with the utmost care from my own actual obser¬ 
vation. I have not in any instance trusted to others for 
information. I have great facilities here for recording the 
exact date of arrival of several of the birds; of the rest, 
more accidentally; but, however, I can guarantee for the 
truth of every date given. I have also added a supple¬ 
mentary table which may be interesting.—A. It., Bromley 
Common, Kent. 
OBSERVATIONS ER03I 1844 TO 1855 INCLUSIVE. 
NAME. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. , 1848. 
1849. 
1850. 
1851. 
1852. 
1853. 
1854. 
1855. 
Blackcap.... 
April 
20 
April 
21 
April 
16 
9 # 
1 
.. 
, , 
April 
26 
April 
8 
May 5 
Apr. 27 
Apr. 14 
May 17 
Chiffchaff .. 
12 
)> 
26 
• • 
• • 
April 
14 
)) 
12 
yy 
4 
Apr. 9 
„ 10 
>. 1 
Apr. 14 
Cuckoo .... 
16 
5) 
24 
April 
24 
• • 
April 
21 
27 
» 
22 
yy 
7 
on 
„ 23 
„ 21 
May 3 
Flycatcher, 
common .. 
May 
8 
May 
25 
May 
15 
May 
15 
• • 
May 
11 
May 
28 
May 10 
May 20 
May 2 7 
„ 28 
Martin. 
• • 
1 
if 
1 
8 May 
3 
May 
15 
>> 
9 
April 
22 
Apr. 28 
yy 4= 
Apr. 29 
„ 16 
Nightingale . 
April 
16 
April 
20 
April 
13 
April 
19 April 
18 
April 
14 
April 
11 
• • 
Apr. 24 
„ 16 
Apr. 17 
Shrike, Red- 
1 
backed .. 
June 
5 
May 
8 
May 
10 
May 
13 
May 
3 
May 
9 
May 
28 
May 7 
May 19 
, , 
, , 
Swallow .... 
April 
18 
April 
6 
April 
26 
April 
26 April 
12 
April 
27 
April 
24 
April 
11 
Apr. 10 
Apr. 12 
„ 15 
„ 21 
Swift . 
• • 
May 
25 
May 
10 
May 
21 May 
17 
• • 
• . 
• • 
• • 
• • 
May 13 
• • 
Redstart.... 
April 
18 
April 
25 
April 
16 
• . 
1 
• • 
April 
24 
May 
8 
Apr. 20 
May 6 
Apr. 22 
• . 
Turtle-dove 
March 15 
• # 
May 
11 
. . 
1 • • 
May 
28 
May 
13 
• • 
. . 
• • 
, , 
, , 
Whinchat .. 
April 
18 
• • 
• , 
May 
11 April 
21 
• . 
April 
12 
• , 
May 5 
• • 
, , 
. , 
White-throat 
5J 
19 
April 
21 
April 
14 
• * 
» 
18 
May 
O 
May 
2 
April 
23 
„ 1 
Apr. 26 
Apr. 27 
Apr. 21 
Wry-neck ., 
JJ 
14 
3 
}» 
16 
April 
13 
April 
18 
April 
111 April 
7 
Apr. 4 
„ 36 
„ 7 
„ 28 
SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE. 
NAME. 
Earliest 
Arrival. 
Latest. 
Difference. 
Number 
of Obser¬ 
vations. 
Blackcap.. 
April 
14 
May 
5 
21 days 
Nine 
Chiffchaff . 
1 
April 
20 
25 
5) 
Nine 
Cuckoo .. 
yy 
16 
May 
3 
16 
yy 
Eleven 
Flycatcher, common 
May 
8 
JJ 
28 
20 
yy 
Ten 
Martin. 
April 
00 
16 
23 
yy 
Eleven 
Nightingale . 
yy 
11 
April 
24 
14 
yy 
Eleven 
Shrike, Red-backed 
May 
3 
June 
5 
32 
yy 
Nine 
Swallow . 
April 
6 
April 
27 
21 
yy 
Twelve 
Swift . 
May 
10 
May 
25 
15 
yy 
Five 
Redstart. 
April 
36 
yy 
8 
22 
yy 
Eight 
Turtle-dove . 
May 
11 
yy 
28 
17 
yy 
Four 
Whinchat . 
April 
12 
yy 
11 
30 
yy 
Five 
White-throat. 
14 
yy 
2 
17 
Eleven 
Wry-neck . 
3 
April 
28 
24 
yy 
Twelve 
[We are very much obliged by this interesting commu¬ 
nication, and shall be obliged by any other notes on such 
subjects.—E d. C. G.] 
Winter has decked them with his own white robe. How 
frosty they appear among the cattle of the barn-yard, as 
with rounded breasts they walk, a little company, in the 
same direction, and tame almost as the dung-hill fowls. 
A whim starts them, with one accord, as if a secret thread 
held them—and away they are borne on the whisk of the 
storm, perhaps to return again with line, faint voices to 
repeat their little march. 
The day is verging upon the night, yet the wind is still 
busy, moving the shutters and clouding the air. It seems 
not like approaching evening, but as though the darkening 
stormy ocean were nearing. It will be another bitter night 
—of in-door festivity, out-door suffering—the poor must be 
denominated out-door. 
And now I bethink me that it is nearly spring—only a 
day between us and March. Yet many a wintry day must 
be endured ere Spring will rejoice around us—the “ wooing 
time,” 
“ When music, sweet music. 
Sounds over the earth, 
And one glad choral song 
Greets the primrose’s birth; 
“ When the lark soars above 
With its shrill matin strain. 
And the shepherd-boy tunes 
His reed-pipe on the plain.” 
MAPLE SUGAR TIME IN AMERICA. 
Oak Valley, Feb. 26, 1855. 
There are numerous flumes in the air to-day ; buildings 
become indistinct; hills loom up dimly; it is the sifting of 
the sky that tries to hide, not darkly, but in whiteness , the 
out-door world, as if it would purify it. 
There are also flurries of snow-birds—gentle, affectionate 
creatures—borpe in the bosoms of the snow-clouds. They 
always go in flocks, as if afraid to be alone in the world. 
So sings Eliza Cook of an English spring. 
Next morning, vine A. M .—The sky is blue, with thin 
fleeces passing quickly over it. There is a glittering white¬ 
ness in the new snow of last night that pains the sight; for 
this is the wane of February, a month by me more beloved 
than October the sober. The solar light is waxing strong. 
About noon the eaves will begin to drip ; already there are 
dark signs of moisture on the roofs, and the sun as yet looks 
out only by turns. 
Dear reader, whose eyes will follow these lines—did you 
ever look under the south eaves of humble, “ wood-coloured ” 
