THE BIRDS OF COWSLIP CORNER 167 



and Finch, there was the hum of a 

 thousand insects' wings as they went to 

 and fro, from flower to flower, or the 

 bees, happy in the sunshine, passed from 

 or to their hives. 



But all this is in the spring and summer 

 months. Last time I was there the winter 

 had not long gone, but the signs of spring 

 were already showing, and on the top 

 branch of a bush, silhouetted against the 

 sky, I saw the Blackbird. He knew the 

 spring was coming, and his beautiful 

 deep contralto notes told me, and all his 

 little world around, that it would not be 

 long before the butterflies flitted their 

 short lives away in the sunshine, over the 

 flowers, in Cowslip Corner. 



