warm; the sun's
rays, although gaining strength day by day, do not become
uncomfortably hot save in the extreme south of the United Provinces.
The night mists, so characteristic of December and January, are almost
unknown in February, and the light dews that form during the hours of
darkness disappear shortly after sunrise.

The Indian countryside is now good to look upon; it possesses all the
beauties of the landscape of July; save the sunsets. The soft emerald
hue of the young wheat and barley is rendered more vivid by contrast
with the deep rich green of the mango trees. Into the earth's verdant
carpet is worked a gay pattern of white poppies, purple linseed
blooms, blue and pink gram flowers, and yellow blossoms of mimosa,
mustard and _arhar_. Towards the end of the month the silk-cotton
trees (_Bombax malabarica_) begin to put forth their great red
flowers, but not until March does each look like a great scarlet
nosegay.

The patches of sugar-cane grow smaller day by day, and in nearly every
village the little presses are at work from morn till eve.

From the guava groves issue the rattle of tin pots and the shouts of
the boys told off to protect the ripening fruit from the attacks of
crows, parrots and other feathered marauders. Nor do these sounds
terminate at night-fall; indeed they become louder after dark, for it
is then that the flying-foxes come forth and work sad havoc among
fruit of all descriptions.

The fowls of the air are more vivacious than they were in January. The
bulbuls tinkle more blithely, the purple sunbirds sing more lustily;
the _kutur_, _kutur_, _kuturuk_ of the green barbets is uttered more
vociferously; the nuthatches now put their whole soul into their loud,
sharp _tee-tee-tee-tee_, the hoopoes call _uk-uk-uk_ more vigorously.

The coppersmiths (_Xantholaema haematocephala_) begin to hammer on
their anvils--_tonk-tonk-tonk-tonk_, softly and spasmodically in the
early days of the month, but with greater frequency and intensity as
the days pass. The brain-fever bird (_Hierococcyx varius_) announces
his arrival in the United Provinces by uttering an occasional
"brain-fever." As the month draws to its close his utterances become
more frequent. But his time is not yet. He merely gives us in February
a foretaste of what is to come.

The _tew_ of the black-headed oriole (_Oriolus melanocephalus_), which
is the only note uttered by the bird in the colder months, is
occasionally replaced