Country Life and Sport
Ax EASTER CouseumseE.
Easter falls this year at the date which begins their English season for a good many birds. Year after Year, with admirable punctuality, we first hear the cuckoo on April 16th, or very near that date ; and the nightingale, which is rather less punctual, generally tries his song over, at the same time, a trifle later than most of the other warblers. Indeed, official summer-time might have been fixed by some happy ornitholo. km. England is likely to be supremely lovely over this holiday period: The plum blossom will just be out, putting a Bridal touch on all fruit-growing centres, in Kent, in Cam- bridgeshire and,- above all, Evesham and Pershore, " where the plums come from." for the Pershore plum is more peculiar to its 'district than any fruit in the list. Those, and they are many, who find greater pleasure in the first green leaves than the first bridal flowers should find this Easter " the sweet if the year " indeed. A great number of the trees are begin- ning, to open their buds almost explosively : sycamore and chestnut, looking to-day almost as white as if the half-open buds were flowers, will be green to-morrow. As a detail of observation it is amusing to compare the earliness of different places and peculiar trees. To give a particular example, there is a chestnut tree in the village of Harpenden that is earlier by three weeks than any chestnut I know. Its leaves this year were " in perfect fan " on the first day of April.
Previous page
