COUNTRY LIFE
MAY stole a good many things from June. There were bowls of many sorts of roses in the house on May 20th in the Midlands and doubtless much earlier in the South. In the same districts cherries were ripe against the wall on May 22nd. The so-called may blossom, which on occasion waits till June, was open in April. Even the may-fly, which often appears after its name month, was early. Some of the grasses flowered at absurdly premature dates. The common fox-tail, for example, was shedding the pollen that produces, it is said, hay fever a month at least before the normal hay-time. Some garden plants refused to acknow- ledge winter. There are, for example, clumps of parsley which still look spring-like, though they are survivors from last year ; and such flowers as the snapdragon tribe and the wallflower quite refused to be annuals. Among early breeders among birds are both partridges and pheasants.
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