because their nests are sometimes seen in January.




FEBRUARY

There's perfume upon every wind,
Music in every tree,
Dews for the moisture-loving flowers,
Sweets for the sucking-bee.
N. P. WILLIS.


Even as January in northern India may be compared to a month made up
of English May days and March nights, so may the Indian February be
likened to a halcyon month composed of sparkling, sun-steeped June
days and cool starlit April nights.

February is the most pleasant month of the whole year in both the
Punjab and the United Provinces; even November must yield the palm to
it. The climate is perfect. The nights and early mornings are cool and
invigorating; the remainder of each day is pleasantly 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