The mellow note of the thrush, singing, perched on the naked boughs of some lofty tree, and the cooing of the ring-dove, in the woods, are heard from the beginning of this month. The rooks are also now in motion, building and repairing their nests; and it is highly amusing to observe the tricks and artifices of this thievish tribe, some to defend, and others to plunder, the materials of their new habitation.

In this month, those birds which took refuge in our temperate climates, from the rigour of the northern winters, begin to leave us, and return to the countries where they were bred. The redwing, fieldfare, and woodcock, are of this kind. They retire to spend their summer in Norway, Sweden, and other parts of the north of Europe.

Frogs, which during the winter lie in a torpid state at the bottoms of ponds and ditches, now enlivened by the warmth of spring, rise in immense numbers to the surface of the water, and make themselves heard to a surprising distance by their croaking; and those small but beautiful fish called smelts, or sparlings, proceed up the rivers in this month, in order to spawn.

But the most agreeable token of returning spring is, that about the middle of this month bees venture out of their hives. As their

food is the sweet juice to be found in the nectaries of flowers, their coming abroad is a certain proof that flowers are now to be met with.

The gardens are now adorned with the yellow and purple crocus; and, towards the end of the month, primroses peep out beneath the hedges, while the fragrant violet discovers itself by the perfume it imparts to the surrounding air.

During this month, the nectarine, the almond, apricot, and cherry trees, come in full bud; the sallow enlivens the hedges with its catkins full of yellow dust; and the leaves of the honeysuckle are nearly expanded.

In the latter part of the month of March, the equinox happens, when day and night are of an equal length all over the world. This takes place again in September. The former is called the vernal, the latter the autumnal equinox.

"The blackbird, woodlark, and the thrush,
Unite with those of feebler voice;
Whose chaunts resound from bush to bush,
To rouse all nature to rejoice.

"Whilst nature seems to hear the sound,

Flowers, herbs, shrubs, trees, put forth their heads,
To ask, what have you, warblers, found,
To make you sing? is winter fled ?

"Sweet yes;" the nightingale replies,
"For I'm the harbinger of spring;
"And to confirm the same," she cries,
"Hark! dont you hear the cuckoo sing?"

THIS month is proverbial for a mixture of bright and gloomy weather. The pleasantness of its sunshiny days, with the delightful view of bursting blossoms and newly opening flowers, is unequalled; but they are frequently overcast with clouds, and

chilled by cold winds. It generally begins with raw unpleasant weather, but its warm gleams of sunshine and gentle showers have the most powerful effect in hastening that universal springing of the vegetable tribes, whence the season of Spring derives its

name.

Early in this month, that welcome harbinger of summer, the swallow returns. The chimney or house swallow lives on insects: its appearance is a certain proof that some of this minute tribe of animals are come abroad from their winter retreats.

Shortly after the arrival of the swallow, the nightingale, that most enchanting of songsters, is heard ; and the groves now resound with the various melody of the birds, while they are busied in pairing, and building their nests, in which they exhibit the most admirable instinctive peculiarities.

-"Some to the holly hedge

Nestling repair, and to the thicket some;
Some to the rude protection of the thorn,
Commit their feeble offspring the cleft tree
Offers its kind concealment to a few ;

Their food its insects, and its moss their nests:
Others apart, far in the grassy dale

Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave,
But most in woodland solitudes delight,

In unfrequented glooms or shaggy banks,
Steep, and divided by a babbling brook,

Whose murmurs soothe them all the live-long day,
When by kind duty fixed."

Another of the most striking events of this month, and a circumstance which has commanded the attention of all countries, is the renewal of the note of the cuckoo, which is generally heard about the middle of April; and whose arrival is regularly preceded some days by that of the wryneck, a small bird, singular in its attitudes and plumage, and which has a peculiar note or cry, easily distinguished when once heard.

The redstart, whitethroat, and yellow wagtail, seen among us only in the warmer months, now make their appearance.

A number of plants flower this month, and, with the blossoms of fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, form a very agreeable spectacle, as well on account of their beauty as of the promise they give of future benefits.

"Arabia cannot boast

A fuller gale of joy, than, lib'ral, thence

Breathes through the sense, and takes the ravish'd soul.
Full of fresh verdure and unnumber'd flowers,

The negligence of nature wide and wild,
Where. undisguis'd by mimic art she spreads
Unbounded beauty to the roving eye."