. Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns . hade of colour. The foliage was notyet dense enough to obstruct the view(Plate XII). Willow catkins were partlyout ; and the delicate leaves of young oakwere visible, whilst the tassels were justabout to show. The gorse was much moregolden, and sycamores, privets and black-berries were all opening into leaf. Youngnettles with their roughly cut leaves of softyellow green had sprung well up out of thegrass. The quick-growing cow parsley hadshot up quite a foot, and many plants of thegipsy wort (which has very jagged leaves),flood
. Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns . hade of colour. The foliage was notyet dense enough to obstruct the view(Plate XII). Willow catkins were partlyout ; and the delicate leaves of young oakwere visible, whilst the tassels were justabout to show. The gorse was much moregolden, and sycamores, privets and black-berries were all opening into leaf. Youngnettles with their roughly cut leaves of softyellow green had sprung well up out of thegrass. The quick-growing cow parsley hadshot up quite a foot, and many plants of thegipsy wort (which has very jagged leaves),flooded by the now high water^ stood outclearly. The hop vines had pushed upquite a foot ; docks of various kinds wereshowing, and from a stray flowering currantwas wafted that delicious aromatic scentthat speaks to us of the country, and of theEnglish country garden in spring time. Thesun had drawn it out : Spring is here, M lb-APRIL 45 spring is here, all nature seemed to sing—the plants, the birds, the insects all heraldedit. It was now the growing time for most. Plate XII : How marvellously does spring changeher garb after only a few hours of sunshine. plant life, but some of the earliest floweringspecies had already bloomed. (Have youever in March caught the subtle odour of thedaphne, the earliest of our indigenous bushes 46 MID-APRIL to burst its bud ? It bears pretty red berriesin the autumn time.) Here were wholebanks of the coltsfoot ; some of the flower-heads were still sharply bent downwards,but in a few days and with more sunshine,they would be erect, showing their prettyyellow heads. These again, after a few hours,would turn to flat round discs of seed, eachseed having a little brush to catch the breezesand be borne away to grow elsewhere, or tobe picked up, perhaps, by a goldfinch, whichloves it for the lining of its nest. And thenfollow the leaves of pleasant bluish-green,like a colts foot in shape. I turned oneover—it was white underneath ! How pretty the dead-ne
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishern, booksubjectbirds
