A MAY RECORD.
The beauty of England this first week of May has astounded even the most constant lover. The sunny warmth fell upon a land soaked with water and upon a rather dilatory spring. The result has been a fantastic blossoming and burgeoning. April leapt to meet June. The riches of the richest months contracted into a span. The sweet o' the year had in it a suggestion of " Flaming June." At the beginning of the week the sycamore boughs were just dotted with white buds. At the end the bracts had fallen in myriads enough to conceal the grass, and the foliage was dense enough to conceal the sky. The apple trees are as full of blossom as the sycamores of leaf ; and in orchards cut smooth the trim grass is snow- white with the spilth of pear blossom. The birds have been almost too noisy ; the cuckoo (both male and female) quite too noisy. Not content with the day, they cuckooed the night through. The smaller migrants are very numerous in some species, but in a few seem almost absent. The sedge- warblers are as many as flies and noisy as motor cars along the Upper Thames. Martins are very much more numerous than swallows, and this spring, as last, the redstart is undiscover, able in his old haunts. Among insects, queen wasps and orange tip butterflies have been legion.
W. BEACH Thomas.
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