Page:Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881).djvu/65

Rh snow-balls, and from time to time I heard a low, soft, rippling note from them. I could see no features, but only the general outline of plump birds in white. It was a very spectral sight, and after I had watched them for several minutes I can hardly say that I was prepared to see them fly away like ordinary buntings when I advanced further. At first they were almost concealed by being the same color with the cloudy sky

How imperceptibly the first springing takes place! In some still, muddy springs whose temperature is more equable than that of the brooks, while brooks and ditches generally are thickly frozen and concealed, and the earth is covered with snow, and it is even cold, hard, and nipping winter weather, some fine grass which fills the water begins to lift its tiny spears or blades above the surface which directly fall flat for half an inch or an inch along the surface, and on these (though many are frost-bitten) you may measure the length to which the spring had advanced (has sprung); very few indeed, even of botanists, are aware of this growth. Some of it appears to go on even under ice and snow. Or, in such a place as I have described, if it is sheltered by alders or the like you may see (as March 2d) a little green crescent of caltha leaves raised an inch