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the feathered tribes, all combine to render it inexpressibly delightful, to exhilarate the spirits, and call forth a song of grateful adoration.

The latest species of the summer birds of passage arrive about the beginning of this month. Among these are the goatsucker, or fern-owl (caprimulgus Europaus), the spotted fly-catcher (muscicapa grisola, and the sedge-bird (motacilla salicaria), called the English mock-bird.

In this and the following month the dotterel is in season, and is to be found on the heaths and moors of Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, and Cambridgeshire. The dotterel is a simple bird, and fond of imitation, and used formerly to be taken in nets by a person approaching them, and stretching out a leg or an arm, which, the bird seeing, made a similar motion with his leg or wing, which occupied its attention till the net was dropped over the whole covey.

There is a traditional story current in Cambridgeshire, that James the First was very fond of the sport of seeing dotterel taken; and, when at Newmarket, used to go upon the Gogmagog hills for that purpose, and was attended by a clergyman of one of the parishes bordering on them, who was very expert at making these motions; when the king was so pleased with him, that he said he would remember him, and promised him a living. The clergyman, however, after some time, thinking, like Young, that he had 'been so long remembered' that he was forgot,' went up to London, and attended at court. Finding himself, however, unnoticed amid the crowd of courtiers, he began to stretch first one arm, and then another, till at length he caught his majesty's eye, who exclaimed There's my dotterel parson; and, on learning what business had brought him thither, he gave him the long-promised living.

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The insect tribes continue to add to their numbers; among these may be named several kinds of moths and butterflies (papilio atalanta, cardamines, M

ægeria, &c.) The queen of Spain butterfly (papilio lathonia), scarlet with black spots, with its under sides inlaid as it were with silver, among the few places where it is to be met with, is found in Gomlingay-wood, in Cambridgeshire, from about the 10th of this month to the middle of June. It is seen about London in September. Other insects now observed, are field crickets (gryllus campestris), the chaffer or may-bug (scarabæus melolontha), and the forest-fly (hippobosca equina), which so much annoys horses and cattle. The female wasp (vespa vulgaris) appears at the latter end of the month.

About this time, bees send forth their early swarms. Nothing can afford greater amusement than to watch the members of this industrious community in their daily journies from flower to flower. See T.T. for 1816, p. 149; and for a list of trees, plants, and flowers, from which the bees extract their honey and wax, we refer to our volume for 1817, p. 149.

About the commencement of the month, the flowers of the lily of the valley (convallaria maialis) and the flowers of the chesnut tree (fagus castanea) begin to open; the tulip tree (liriodendron tulipfera) has its leaves quite out, and the flowers of the oak (quercus robur), the Scotch fir (pinus sylvestris), the honeysuckle, and the beech, are in full bloom. Towards the middle, the flowers of the white-thorn are quite out, and the mulberry tree (morus nigra) puts forth its leaves; the walnut (juglans regia) has its flowers in full bloom; the flowers of the garden rose also begin to open.

The lilac (syringa vulgaris), the barberry (berberis vulgaris), and the maple (acer campestre), are now in flower. At the latter end of the month, rye (secale hybernum) is in ear; the mountain ash (sorbus aucuparia), laburnum (cytisus laburnum), the guelder rose (viburnum opulus), clover (trifolium pratense), columbines (aquilegia vulgaris), the alder (rhamnus frangula), the wild chervil (chorophyllium temulum),

and the wayfaring tree, or guelder-rose, have their flowers full blown. The germander (veronica chamædrys) is seen in hedges, and various species of meadow grass are now in flower. Heart's-ease (viola tricolor) shows its interesting little flower in corn fields. The butter-cup (ranunculus bulbosus) spreads over the meadows; the cole-seed (brassica napus) in corn fields, bryony (brionia dioica), the arum, or cuckoo-pint, in hedges, the Tartarian honeysuckle (lonicera tartarica), and the corchorus Japonica, now show their flowers.

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Cowper has some beautiful lines in his Task,' appropriate to this subject:

Laburnum, rich
In streaming gold; syringa, iv'ry pure;
The scentless and the scented rose; this red,
And of an humbler growth, the other tall,
And throwing up into the darkest gloom
Of neighb'ring cypress, or more sable
Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf
That the wind severs from the broken wave;
The lilac, various in array, now white,

yew,

Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set
With purple spikes pyramidal, as if

Studious of ornament, yet unresolved

Which hue she most approved, she chose them all;

Copious of flow'rs the woodbine, pale and wan,

But well compensating her sickly looks
With never-cloying odours, early and late;
Hypericum all bloom, so thick a swarm
Of flow'rs, like flies clothing her slender rods,
That scarce a leaf appears; mezereon too,
Though leafless, well attired, and thick beset
With blushing wreaths, investing ev'ry spray;
Althea with the purple eye; the broom,
Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloyed,
Her blossoms; and luxuriant above all
The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets,
The deep dark green of whose unvarnished leaf
Makes more conspicuous, and illumines more
The bright profusion of her scattered stars.

The female glow-worm (lampyris noctiluca) is seen

The Guelder-rose,

on dry banks, about woods, pastures, and hedgeways, exhibiting, as soon as the dusk of the evening commences, the most vivid and beautiful phosphoric splendour, in form of a round spot of considerable

size.

The marine plants which flower this month, and which are chiefly found on sea-shores and in the crevices of rocks, arc, buck's horn (plantago coronopus), which flowers the whole summer; burnet saxifrage (pimpinella dioica), sea arrow-grass (triglochin. maritimum) on muddy shores; the clammy lychnis (lychnis viscaria); the cerastium tetrandrum; scurvygrass (cochlearia), sea-kale (crambe maritima) on sandy shores; the sea-cabbage (brassica oleracea), the sea stork's bill (erodium maritimum), the slender bird's foot trefoil (lotus diffusus), the mountain fleawort (cineraria integrifolia) on chalky cliffs; and the sedge (carex arenaria) on sea-shores.

The leafing of trees is usually completed in May.See our last volume, p. 132; and T.T. for 1817, p. 155, for some lines on planting trees.

There are few objects of domestic economy affording greater interest and delight than the dairy, whether we view it with its brick floor and whitened walls, its latticed window, its benches with its red pans, its churn and cheese-press, in the cottage and the farm-house,-or with its floor of stone or marble, with a stream flowing through it, or a fountain bubbling up, with its walls lined with tiles of Wedgwood's ware, with rich painted borders, its marble slabs supported by arches, to put the wooden or yellow-ware vessels to hold the milk, with its gothic windows enriched with stained glass, and its furniture of old china, in the dairy ornèe of the gentleman's or nobleman's residence. The variety of viands which it affords, from the milk, cream, butter and cheese, in their simple forms, to the custards, blanc mange, and ice-creams, are so many instances of its great simplicity in its first state, and of its

luxury in the other. A land flowing with milk and honey,' was the divine promise to his chosen people from the Great Creator of all things.

Sir Thomas Overbury's character of a fair and happy milk-maid' is probably new to many of our readers: A fair and happy milk-maid is a country wench that is so far from making herself beautiful by art, that one look of her's is able to put all face-physic out of countenance. She knows a fair look is but a dumb orator to commend virtue, therefore minds it not. All her excellences stand in her so silently, as if they had stolen upon her without her knowledge. The lining of her apparel (which is herself) is far better than outsides of tissue; for though she be not arrayed in the spoil of the silkworm, she is decked in innocency, a far better wearing. She doth not, with lying long in bed, spoil both her complexion and conditions. Nature hath taught her, too immoderate sleep is rust to the soul; she rises therefore with chanticleer, and at night makes the lamb her curfew. Her breath is her own, which scents all the year long of June, like a newmade haycock. She makes her hand hard with labour, and her heart soft with pity; and when winter evenings fall early (sitting at her merry wheel) she sings a defiance to the giddy wheel of Fortune. She doth all things with so sweet a grace, it seems ignorance will not suffer her to do ill, being her mind is to do well. She bestows her year's wages at next fair; and in choosing her garments, counts no bravery in the world like decency. The garden and bee-hive are all her physic and chirurgery, and she lives the longer for't. She dares go alone, and unfold sheep in the night, and fears no manner of ill, because she means none: yet, to say the truth, she is never alone, for she is still accompanied with old songs, honest thoughts, and prayers, but short ones; yet they have their efficacy, in that they are not palled with ensuing idle cogitations. Lastly, her dreams are so pleasant,

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