104 A SPRING HERESY 



earth and heaven restored once more to view, the 

 Kestrel left mousing from hedge-tops to stretch her 

 wings in hovering flight ; Blackbird and Throstle 

 returned to hug the hedgerows ; Fieldfares scattered 

 abroad in the open lands; bands of Skylarks flitted 

 prattling from field to field; Yellowhammers passed 

 higher in jerky flight, dropping their liquid note like 

 water striking water as they went; Chaffinches 

 "pink"-^ aloud, or sallied forth "tiu /zV-ing for a 

 short excursion across the river. The Grey Wagtail, 

 too, was there by the water's edge, where he had 

 been throughout the fall ; a bird so limited in his 

 wanderings during his winter sojourn with us, that it 

 was scarcely ever more than a hundred yards from 

 two well-known spots. Everywhere was sound and 

 movement, as of new life sprung from the loosened 

 earth. Even the Starlings left for a while the 

 manure dressing on the spring rhubarb, and, clustered 

 thickly on the dead top branches of a high tree, 

 wheezed and whistled, clucked and chuckled to the 

 on-coming spring. 



And so, in spite of winter solstices and the First 

 Point of Aries, I went down to my own house 

 justified. 



