RUSTLING WINGS l6l 



panded by the liberal juices of sum- 

 mer, the air above is still soft, the 

 grass richly green, the eye filled with 

 colour and focused for sunlight, the 

 skin pores moist, respirative, and the 

 house of the body unguarded. So 

 Nature, never abrupt, sends a bird 

 message — a gentle, unjarring reminder 

 — to prepare the way, before a single 

 tree shows the red flag of warning or 

 a chilly breath contracts the muscles. 



In this interval, when the com- 

 mencement of the season's ebb-tide is 

 scarcely perceptible, it is a sort of high 

 noon. In the spring the eye went from 

 the leafless trees to the birds, and then 

 back to the trees, as the birds became 

 hidden by their leafage. In this, the 

 earth's middle season, as the great sap- 

 ebbing begins. Nature draws the eye 

 again to the birds, and these wander- 

 ing minstrels play a comedy for those 



