THE SOUTHDOWN SHEPHERD 203 



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 south- 

 wards, 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 lengthways ; 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. 



Rooks 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. 



