Shanghai, Feb. 20—Today commences the period which the Chinese call "Rain Water" (Vu-shui)....and the day started most appropriately with a shower of rain blown up by a sudden wind: this period is really the forerunner of Spring, for two weeks hence comes the jay of Excited Insects, perhaps better called he Awakening of Insects. The remarkable thing about these changes is the rapidity with which birds and all animals respond to them and I can already note changes in the habits of the creatures in my garden: the Magpies, for example, have now probably got eggs and are increasingly jealous of any interlopers in their territory; they do not object too much to the small birds, but if a Rook or another Magpie comes n to feed, there is a fight at once: the Titmice ioo are rather early breeders and I note that "hey always come in pairs to claim their feed of peanuts: I have not yet seen any Blackbirds actually making their nests, but the fights which go on among the males (and sometimes the females too), the increased song, the excited zolls of "wick-wick" if another Blackbird appears, all show that they can feel the coming of Spring: I note that the Bulbuls are still going about in little mobs, or small parties of three or four, but the males are beginning to raise the feathers at the back of their heads and shout "chee-o0-chee-óo-chee-oe" which is their way of announcing that they feel Spring in their bones and will soon be choosing a wife. Who noting all these little signs can help thinking each year of the Song of Solomon? ",...lo, the winter is past....the flowers appear on the earth; the time of, the singing of birds has come." Solomon certainly did not miss
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.