THE COMING OF SPRING. 
E. E. BENTON. 
NO ONE perhaps ever lived who 
excelled Henry D. Thoreau as 
a general observer of nature. 
He patiently and with minute 
care examined both animate and inani- 
mate creation, and wrote down an ac- 
curate account of his observations, 
noting particularly the effects pro- 
duced by the changes in the seasons. 
He worked diligently to discover the 
first sign of spring, with results not 
wholly satisfactory. In one place he 
asks: "What is the earliest sign of 
spring? The motions of worms and 
insects? The flow of sap in trees and 
the swelling of buds? Do not the in 
sects awake with the flow of the sap? 
Bluebirds, etc., probably do not come 
till the insects come out. Or are there 
earlier signs in the water, the tortoises, 
frogs, etc.?" 
He found that whenever there was a 
warm spell during the winter some 
forms of vegetation, particularly the 
grasses and water plants, would begin 
to grow, and some would even bloom 
in favorable locations, as the skunk 
cabbage. He did not fully settle the 
question as to what would begin to 
grow first in the spring, whether it was 
the catkins of the swamp willow or the 
stems and leaves of the equisetum in 
the pool, or something else. 
A list of the most striking phe- 
nomena observed by Thoreau in early 
spring is given below, and is extracted 
from his journals, written when he 
lived near Boston, during the years 
1840 to i860. In each case the earliest 
date mentioned by Thoreau is given, 
there being a difference of about a 
month between the earliest and latest 
spring. Many of these phenomena 
and the order in which they occur are 
common to a large extent of country, 
including the eastern and northern 
central states. Thus, the skunk cab- 
bage is the first flower in all this 
region. A few notes are added, show- 
ing variations. 
February 21 — Sap of the red maple 
flowing. This was in 1857. It does 
not usually flow until the second week 
in March. 
February 23 — Yellow-spotted tor- 
toise seen. 
February 24 — The bluebird, "angel 
of the spring," arrives; also the song- 
sparrow. The phebe or spring note of 
the chickadee, a winter bird, heard. 
"The bluebird and song-sparrow sing 
immediately on their arrival, and 
hence deserve to enjoy-some preemi- 
nence. They give expression to the 
joy which the season inspires, but the 
robin and blackbird only peep and 
tchuck at first, commonly, and the lark 
is silent and flitting. The bluebird at 
once fills the air with his sweet warb- 
ling, and the song-sparrow, from the 
top of a rail, pours forth his most joy- 
ous strain." 
March 1— The catkins of the willow 
and aspen appear to have started to grow. 
March 2 — The caltha, or cowslip, 
found growing in water. 
The skunk cabbage in bloom in 
warm, moist grounds. 
March 5 — The red maple and elm 
buds expanded. 
The spring note of the nut-hatch 
heard: To-what, what, what, what f 
zvhat, rapidly repeated, instead of the 
usual guah quah of this winter bird. 
March 6 — The gyrinus (water-bug) 
seen in the brook. 
First blackbird seen. 
Green sprouts of the sassafras, hazel, 
blueberry, and swamp-pink found. 
March 7 — Fuzzy gnats in the air. 
First robins. 
Spring note of the shrike heard, 
probably silent during the winter. 
March 8 — Willow buds expanded. 
Sap flowing in the white pine. 
Flock of grackles seen. 
Radical leaves of the golden-rods 
and asters in water, growing decidedly. 
March 9 — Ducks seen. 
March 10— Poplar and willow cat- 
kins started; also equisetum (horse- 
tail), saxifrage, and probably other 
water plants. The butter-cup found 
growing. 
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