210 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



broken and blackened skin of the caterpillar and the 

 detached thorax : the cocoon is like the baskets for 

 taking fish at weirs, only the willows merely touch at the 

 tip, and through these he had crept out, and they closed 

 behind him. 



The pale purple heather bloom still lies in the bottom 

 of the box. Never again shall I see a day of such glory 

 of light, of air burning with light ; the very ferns in the 

 shade were bright with the glow, despite their soft green. 

 A sad hour it was to me, yet I could see all its beauty ; 

 sad, too, to think it will never return. So the Emperor 

 moth came out on the 2nd of April, and the same day 

 there was a yellow and a white butterfly in the garden. 

 There had come a gleam of sunshine after tv/o months 

 of bitter north wind, and the insects took life imme- 

 diately. Early in the morning the greenfinches were 

 screaming at each other in the elm — they were in such 

 a hurry to get out their song, they screamed ; the chaf- 

 finches were challenging, and the starlings fluttering 

 their wings at the high window, and all this excitement 

 at one gleam of sun. A friend asked me what bird it 

 was that always finished up its song with a loud call for 

 * ginger-beer ' — whatever he sang he always said ' ginger- 

 beer ' at the end of it ; it is the chaffinch, and a very 

 good rendering of the notes. * Quawk ! Quoak ! ' the 

 rooks as they went by were so contented enjoying the 

 sunshine, they took out the harsh ' c ' or ' k ' and substi- 

 tuted the softer ' q ' — * quawk ! quowk ! ' Another 

 perched on a tree made a short speech, perhaps he 

 thought it was a song. Sea-gulls have curiously rook- . 

 like habits in some respects, following the plough like 

 them, and in spring wheeling for hours round and round 

 in the sky as the rooks do. 



The blackbirds and thrushes that had been singing* 



