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128

NATURAL HISTORY CALENDAR NOTICES.

I knowed he wer hopeless, and so wer I: for ye see, sir, it
wer no easy task to work at a load of earth in a narrow

| tunnel, and remove it before the poor fellow underneath

wer exhausted. But there wer a white-faced woman
praying for our success at the mouth of the pit, and we
went to work steadily, every one eager to take their turn.

“Tt wer late next day before we brought Will Thomas

| out of the pit, and them that stood about it said he wer
| dead. But they wer wrong.
| he come to, and knew the wife who was watching over

Jt wer many hours before

him; and it wer a long while before he took his spell of
work with us again; but he did get well, and may be
he’s none the worse now for the time when he lay some
twenty hours or more fast in an adit.” J.J. F.

NATURAL HISTORY CALENDAR
NOTICES.

By tHe Rey. J. C. Arkrnson.
FEBRUARY.

O doubt the first calendarial circumstance
that would be thought of by a great many
persons in connexion with the month of
February, will be Valentine’s Day, the
reputed pairing-day of the birds. I hardly

know an older or a more universally entertained popular

notion than that “on this day every bird chooses its
mate.” Shakspere refers to it in “ Midsummer Night's

Dream,” and Chaucer, who is said to have died in 1400,

makes “Nature, the Vicare of the Almightie Lord,” give

charge to the fowls on this wise :—

Sen

<3: §

Ye know well, how on St. Valentine’s Day,

By my statute and through my governaunce,
Ye doe chese your mates, and after flie away
With hem, as I doe pricke you with pleasaunce.

“JT have searched the legend of St. Valentine,” says
Brand (* Popular Antiquities”), “but think there is no
occurrence in his life that could have given rise to this
ceremony,’ that, namely, of “drawing valentines ;” and
there is quite as little in the way of authority or tradition
for assigning the 14th of February to “the foules” as
a pairing-day. It may be there is a sort of rough and
ready attempt to date a proceeding which takes place, in
the general, about or soon after mid-February, and that
the 14th, being St. Valentine’s day, affords a handy peg
to hang the tally to. Certainly there is no sort of literal
foundation for assigning even the liberal date of “about
the middle of February” for the alleged proceeding.
Nay, there is very great difficulty about alleging that it
takes place at any given time, if the allegation is to be
made with a view of fixing a date as applicable to any
Single species of birds. Thus I haye continually met
with proofs that a few pairs of grouse have gone through
the “proposing” and “accepting” stages before the 10th
of December; and again and again I have seen the
cententions between the males, consequent on the paying
ef the previous attentions to the females, going on all
over the moor several days before that date. But all
depends very much on the nature of the season. This
year—there being as I write, on 21st November, several
inches of snow on the moors, which has been there for a
week, and looks like lying a good deal longer yet—I do
not suppose it is the least likely there will be any pair-
ing this side of Christmas. And it is the same with

ESS

partridges. I have often seen them, in a few instances
out of the general number, paired before the end of
January; not often much before. But very often in
sharp and lengthened winters I have seen them in their
coveys still many days after 14th February. As to other
birds, there is no doubt that pairing takes place in many
instances, in the case of a few couples, days or weeks
before the generality of the same species unite. Last
year, for instance, as noticed in a previous page of this
magazine, two pairs of blackbirds and two pairs of robins
were noticed in my garden, day by day, all through the
winter. Ringdoves, again, I have reason to think, occa-
sionally pair very early; so also do hedge-sparrows.
About the house or common sparrow it is difficult to
come to a conclusion from their gregarious habits and
greater numbers. The golden plover I have never
known to form a very early evident union, nor the
lapwing either; and yet with respect to the latter, it
may be quite possible that the courtship is over and the
union arranged much sooner than there is any ocular
evidence for; because, on arrival at their nesting quarters,
the work of the breeding season seems to begin at once.
With respect to the golden plover, I have often seen a
solitary pair about while the bulk of the species are still
in the unbroken flock. And yet, on one occasion, when I
had killed five out of a large flock in March, by one
discharge of my gun, I found in one of them an egg so
far ready for extrusion that it was already vividly
coloured. The fact is, we want more facts touching the
pairing of birds, and besides we want more observation.
Depending, however, upon the season, upon its being
early, open, and mild, or upon the winter being long and
protracted, the general pairing will be arranged a week
or two sooner or a week or two later; and if we were to
attempt to “‘name the day” for the generality of birds,
our first proviso would be “tide and weather permitting,”
and then we would specify the latter end of February
rather than the exact middle. Exceptional marriages,
which have been most evidently “made in haste,” will be
noticed every year; but there is no such thing known
among the bird community at large as “repenting at
leisure” on that ground.

Besides this, the most important movement in the
bird-life of the year, there is not very much else to attract
the casual observer's special attention and interest in the
proceedings of animated nature in the month of February.
The home or northward migration of birds has hardly
commenced—that from the south, for breeding purposes,
has hardly been thought of Insect life is uot lavish of
its manifestations. Fine warm days towards the end of
the month certainly often bring out individuals, or a few
specimens, of winged creatures that have spent the
winter in a state of stagnant being; a few flies, a stray
butterfly or two, and so forth, may be seen, but no
wealth or prodigality of life, such as will be displayed
in the coming month. Nature, generally speaking, is
rubbing her eyes, or at all events preparing to awake
after her winter’s nap; but she is hardly up yet. I
merely add, as comment on my own, the following
“notes” from the register of a good observer, well placed
for opportunities of observation, for February of 1871.
“Feb. 8. Spring note of golden plover first heard. Feb.
13. Snow bunting: last appearance. Feb. 21. Ringed
plover. Heard spring note; they are now in pairs :” and
that is all.