About the middle of the month, the green-house plants are ventured out: the rule is, the foliation of the common ash and the mulberry. This is a critical month for insects, especially the green fly or aphis family, and the caterpillars. Tobacco, limewater, and hand-picking, are the remedies. The various species of meadow grass are in flower. The buttercup spreads over the meadows; the coleseed in corn fields; bryony, the arum, or cuckoo-pint, in hedges; the Tartarian honeysuckle, and the Corchorus Japonica, now show their flowers. Sweet violets still continue to shed their delicious odours. O! to breathe The nectared air of a clear morn in May, Towards the end of the month, that magnificent and beautiful tree, the horse-chestnut, displays its honours of fine green leaves, and its handsome spikes pyramidal' of white and red flowers: it is quite the glory of forest trees. The hawthorn (white and pink) is usually in blossom about the middle or end of the month. Again the merry month o' May Has made our hills and valleys gay: And evening's tears are tears of joy: Within yon milk-white hawthorn bush, O wae upon you, men o' state, BURNS. The principal show of tulips takes place in this month (see T.T. for 1824, p. 158). The dazzling and gorgeous appearance of beds of tulips cannot fail to attract the notice of the most indifferent observer: some varieties of this elegant flower are very splen did, and unrivalled for the beauty of their exquisite colours. Spring flowers are no longer What spring flowers used to be; In the spring time of the year? In life's gay unclouded spring,- Like wild birds upon the wing: Is the spring time of the year! .T. H. BAYLEY. Towards the end of the month, the Phalaena humuli, called by some the ghost moth, makes its appearance, and continues visible during the greater part of the month of June. The female glow-worm is now seen on dry banks, about woods, pastures, and hedgeways.-The angler is busily employed in this month. The Thrasher, or Brown Thrush of America.-This bird (says Mr. Wilson, in that highly interesting work "The Ornithology of America') is a welcome visiter in Spring to every lover of rural scenery and rural song. In the months of April and May, when our woods, hedge-rows, orchards, and cherry-trees are one profusion of blossoms, when every object around conveys the sweet sensations of joy, and heaven's abundance is, as it were, showering around us, the grateful heart beats in unison with the varying elevated strains of this excellent bird: we listen to its notes with S a kind of devotional ecstacy, as a morning hymn to the great and most adorable Creator of all.-Concerning the sagacity and reasoning faculty of this bird, my venerable friend, Mr. Bartram, writes me as follows: I remember to have reared one of these birds from the nest; which, when full grown, became very tame and docile. I frequently let him out of his cage, to give him a taste of liberty: after fluttering and dusting himself in dry sand and earth, and bathing, washing, and dressing himself, he would proceed to hunt insects, such as beetles, crickets, and other shelly tribes; but being very fond of wasps, after catching them and knocking them about to break their wings, he would lay them down, then examine if they had a sting, and with his bill squeeze the abdomen to clear it of the reservoir of poison, before he would swallow his prey. When in his cage, being very fond of dry crusts of bread, if upon trial the corners of the crumbs were too hard and sharp for his throat, he would throw them up, carry and put them in his water-dish to soften; then take them out and swallow them. Many other remarkable circumstances might be mentioned that would fully demonstrate faculties of mind; not only innate, but acquired ideas (derived from necessity in a state of domestication), which we call understanding and knowledge. We see that this bird could associate those ideas, arrange and apply them in a rational manner, according to circumstances. For instance, if he knew that it was the hard, sharp, corners of the crumb of bread that hurt his gullet, and prevented him from swallowing it, and that water would soften and render it easy to be swallowed, this knowledge must be acquired by observation and experience, or some other bird taught him. Here the bird perceived by the effect the cause, and then took the quickest, the most effectual, and agreeable method to remove that cause. What could the wisest man have done better? Call it reason, or instinct, it is the same that a sensible man would have done in this case. After the same manner this bird reasoned with respect to the wasps. He found, by experience and observation, that the first he attempted to swallow hurt his throat, and gave him extreme pain; and, upon examination, observed that the extremity of the abdomen was armed with a poisonous sting; and after this discovery never attempted to swallow a wasp until he first pinched his abdomen to the extremity, forcing out the sting with the receptacle of poison. [From Darley's Silvia.] Green haunts, and deep inquiring lanes, From boughs, beseeching to be reft, Millions of blossoms, fruits, and gems, Burn through the air, or swim the glades; Poetical Pictures in May and June. [From Robert Montgomery's Omnipresence of the Deity."] Morning. The Sun is seated on his ocean throne, Engirdled with his court of clouds. Around, Billows of damask and of orange light Evolving roll, as from a cauldron heaved; While, from the midst, red bars of splendour shoot, And travel fiercely to the midway skies; Then cowered awhile, they swell to wizard shapes, Mingle their hues, and make a shining plain Beneath, the waves, Shiv'ring and glassy, lie like ruffled scales The flowers are waking too, and ope their eyes The buzz of life! Myriads of insects now Creep from their greenwood caves and mossy domes, And wind their way, to glitter in the sun; While from yon hurdled hills the sheep-bells shake Their tinkling echoes down the bushy dale. And is creation's heir, in sleepy calm, Unmindful of the morn! Ah! no; its beam Hath glanced upon the cottager's clean couch, And called him up. And, see! the lattice oped And praise, because another day is born. Poon. The Sun hath waxed into his noontide wrath, Basking and buzzing creep. The trees stand still The ploughman lies, his head upon his palms; The world grows faint; and all is stirless, save Far beyond, Behold a rock majestically reared;" When whitening in the glow of heaven. And, look! Dropped down upon the deep, and dancing on |