COUNTRY LIFE IT has been claimed for April—Shakespeare's month, as
May C.haucer's—that it is the prettiest word in the English, or Latin, guage ; and because, like woman, it is mutabile sem per, it is the exciting month by a very long lead. We have seen and heard this March, swallows, martins, chilf-chaffs and wheatears ; but the numbers even of these brave birds come in April. We had found 3 or two of thrush and blackbird before April struck, and the crow had laid clutches ; but April 15th, reckoned as the date for the partridge's nests, and for the arrival of nightingale and cuckoo, the middle and end of the month incomparable for those whose in are vernal. The early heaths, the crocuses, the willow catkins are with bees ; but April is treacherous as well as lovely, and there is month in the year when it is more important, if the weather is a adverse, to look to the catering of the hives—and honey will be precious. The demand for bees is very vigorous, and many coo are seeking in vain for swarms.
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