THE SOUTHDOWN SHEPHERD. 231 



blue scabious, white dropwort, yellow bedstraw, and 

 the large purple blooms of greater knapweed. Here 

 and there a blue field gentian is still in flower ; ' ' eggs 

 and bacon " grow beside the waggon tracks. Grass- 

 hoppers hop among the short dry grass ; bees and 

 bumblebees are buzzing about, and there are places 

 quite bright with yellow hawkweeds. 



The furze is everywhere full of finches, troops of 

 them ; and there are many more swallows than were 

 flying here a month since. No doubt, they are on 

 their way southwards, and stay, as it were, on the 

 edge of the sea while yet the sun shines. As the 

 evening falls the sheep come slowly home to the fold. 

 When the flock is penned some stand panting, and 

 the whole body at each pant moves to and fro length- 

 ways; some press against the flakes till the wood 

 creaks ; some paw the dry and crumbling ground 

 (arable), making a hollow in which to lie down. 



Books are fond of the places where sheep have been 

 folded, and perhaps that is one of the causes why they 

 so continually visit certain spots in particular fields 

 to the neglect of the rest. 



