AN EXCURSION IN A CALENDAR.
STEVENSON writes somewhere of the ease and pleasure of a voyage in an atlas. You are tired, perhaps, of the climate or country in which you happen to be living ; a yellow fog lies cold and heavy over sooty streets,—yon have but to turn over the pages of maps to find the sun throwing blue shadows on the white sand of the Soudan, or to float down green roads of water where
"La Venus de rAdriatique Sort de reau son corps rose et blanc."
An equal, possibly a greater, pleasure may attend the traveller on an excursion, not into an atlas, or the pages of "Bradshaw," but into the list of dates and events of a calendar. It may be mid-December in London, with the snow sliding off grimy roofs into the gutter ; but it needs only two or three turns of the leaves of the calendar to bring the great tit with his ringing call into the swaying beech-twigs, or the cuckoo shouting down the hill through the sun and rain.
Occasionally, however, a calendar may suggest other notions besides the mere anticipation of April and May flowers. Here, for instance, before us is a publication called "Philips' Nature Calendar for 1906." Its price is sixpence, and it is to be obtained at the London Geographical Institute, 32 Fleet Street. It is apparently a perfectly serious document, which you are invited to hang on a wall, and you are cautioned not to tear the leaves off, but to turn them behind when done with, "so that the whole may be preserved for reference." This is an invitation of which it is difficult to think that the enthusiastic naturalist will not avail himself. It opens, for instance, with the fair and square statement under the date January 1st : "Red-Breast sings from now to the 14th, and again in October." Clearly a statement of this kind must be "preserved for reference " ; but what is the school-teacher to answer to the child who happens to hear a robin in full song in February, March, or April, or during the winter months that follow October P It is not, however, the remarks about the robin which are of the greatest value to ornithologists. On January 8th, for instance, we are told that the "Thrush sings from now till the 22nd." On the 14th, it would seem, punctual to the minute, "House-sparrow chirps," and on the 25th, a fact which clergymen will kindly note, "Jack- daws begin to come to churches." - February is not so full of notes which would have deeply interested Gilbert White, but we are informed that on the 13th "the Green Woodpecker makes a loud cry from now till nearly end of March," and that on the 10th the "Turkey cock struts and gobbles." There would seem to be, indeed, some kind of plan in the compiler's mind of limiting the times during which birds should be allowed to emit sounds ; this is possibly in order to instil into the child's mind the virtue of strict punctuality. You are informed, for instance, that on April 7th "The Cuckoo may now be beard until the 26th," so that probably if you heard the bird making a noise after that date it would really be a rook or a magpie. Two of the "first appear- ances," however, are among the most interesting of the occasions chronicled in the Calendar. These are the "first appearance of Middle Yellow Wren," which happens on April 11th, to be followed on the 14th by the first appear- ance of "Second Willow or Laughing Wren." Whether these two beautiful little creatures were known to Bewick or Yarrell the present writer is unaware ; the first one sounds rather like something out of a paintbox. But, on the whole, the statement which will arouse the greatest interest among ornithologists is one which is noted opposite the date of November 15th. On that date "the Short-eared Owl may be found under turnip leaves." As Herodotus might have remarked, "what it is doing there at that time I, knowing well, prefer not to say."
The publishers, in the course of a statement made with all gravity on the cover, thanking "their many friends among the teaching profession for the cordial manner in which the edition for 1905 was received," refer to "the many evidences they have had of its helpfulness in the preparation of lessons in Nature Study" afforded by the " Calendar " in the past. How great the help afforded must be to eager students of such a science as entomology only those who have studied the Calendar most deeply will be able properly to appreciate. It was a well-known London journalist who, on being in- formed that there were more than sixty species of British butterflies, remarked with an air of pleased surprise that hitherto he had supposed there were only two, "the white kind and the coloured kind." To a mind wandering in such lamentable ignorance a calendar such as this would prove the greatest blessing. He would learn, for example, that on January 16th he might look for "first appearance of Butter- fly." On the 27th the Calendar is more explicit : he must Look for the "first appearance of Nettle Butterfly." It is a little difficult to identify this species, though possibly it is intended for the small tortoiseshell, whose caterpillar feeds on nettles. But the difficulties suggested by the entrance into public life of the "Nettle Butterfly" fade into insignificance when compared with the problems raised by the first appearances of other Lepidoptera. On August 15th, for instance, you are told that the "Black- eyed Marble Butterfly appears," and on the 29th the same information is given you as to the "Small Golden Black-spotted Butterfly." (On this day, it should be noted, "Swallow sings.") It is pleasant to think that on these dates we shall all of us be able to go out and discover these charming additions to the British fauna. But perhaps, after all, it will not be butterflies which will interest the school children most. On March 21st, if they know their Calendar well, they will all be looking for the "first appearance of the Buzz-fly," and on the very next day, when, by the way, "the Snake" comes out, they will get their first glimpse of the
"Horse Ant," which will be on view until April 18th. (It is at this time that the "Greenfinch sings for a month.") This, however, is not all that they are to expect. Neither a day early nor a day late, but precisely on May 10th, out comes the "Apis Longicornis." It waits for seventeen days, and then on the 27th it "bores holes in walks." May we not imagine Mr.
Fairchild duly taking a note of this fact with the idea of imparting useful information to Lucy and Henry P Doubtless with the assistance of John, who would not forget to put into the luncheon basket, after his invariable custom, "a bottle of ale for Mr. Fairchild," he would have arranged a family picnic with the express purpose of taking the children out into the country to watch the " Apis Longicornis " at its enthralling work.
The naturalist should not fail to note other facts of more general importance. On February 21st the "Common Flea appears," to be followed on the next day by the viper, and the day after by the wood-louse. The "Fox smells rank" punctually on the 7th, and three weeks later you get the following instructive medley :—" February 28th, Ash Wed- nesday. Relief of Ladysmith, 1900. Toad now appears. Frogs spawn till March 22nd." This is all the more remark- able because on turning over the next page of the Calendar you find opposite March 2nd, "First appearance of Frog." The fishing season, it would seem, this year will be sadly limited. All you are told is that on March 7th "Louts begin to rise from now till the 14th." This is not the only fact of interest to fishermen, for precisely a month later the "Gudgeon spawns," and the difficulty which we shall all feel will be in wondering when the other fish, about which nothing whatever is said, follow the gudgeon's example. Fishermen, however, are rather scantily supplied with facts by the Calendar, for although it is remarked that the "Angler's May- fly may be seen from June 3rd to the 14th," there is nothing to tell the Thames angler when he may legally fish for perch and pike, or for that matter, sticklebacks; though, to be sure, he is duly provided on September 1st with the erroneous information that "Salmon close time begins." The child who means to devote himself to shooting is better looked after. He is properly instructed as to the dates on which partridge, pheasant, and grouse shooting begin. But nothing is said about black-game, for on looking up August 20th all you are told is that "Bulls make their shrill autumnal noise." This presumably has no reference whatever to the Stock Exchange, but is a natural operation. Possibly it is allied to the abominably noisy habits of deer, hares, guinea-pigs, and for all we know sardines, for on refer- ring to November 1st, under the heading "All Saints Day," we discover the pleasing statement, "Bucks grunt." After this we find ourselves wondering whether Boa tomtits eat is not, after all, only an entry from a Roman natural history calendar which somehow got transferred into Livy,—perhaps in the course of transcription.
To be serious, a calendar compiled for school children something on these lines might have been made very delight- ful a'nd instructive. There are no doubt approximate dates at which the first appearance of hundreds of English birds and flowers may be and should be noticed by children, if their parents or school-teachers wished them to take an interest in natural history or country lore. All children ought to know, for instance, the notes of the commoner kinds of birds and the names and months of flowering of field and woodside flowers. They ought to know, too, the dates of the close-time for all protected birds.. They will not, however, it is to be feared, learn very much that is valuable from the particular publication from which we have quoted, though no doubt the "Nature Calendar" will find a place on the study walls of any naturalist who, feeling despondent or depressed, is tempted to search for educational entertainment, and maybe fresh facts.
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