236 Summer Studies of Birds and Books CHAP. 



paradise of peace and plenty, very different from 

 the lot of our hard-driven Kestrels of the too-well- 

 preserved midlands. 



In the summer the air of Bindon is sweet with 

 thyme ; but it is in September that I have most 

 often been here, when the wealth of bloom is over. 

 There are, indeed, still plenty of flowers, all of them 

 blue, purple, or yellow, and nearly all small in size. 

 The plants are here all dwarfed, like those of the 

 high Alps; they nestle down in the soft herbage, 

 not caring to put out long stalks which might be 

 rudely handled by strong winds. Among these is 

 one which in September is Bindon's special ornament, 

 peering up with an upright corolla of deep purple 

 wherever the grass is short ; some plants are bolder 

 than the others, and shoot up for three or four 

 inches, branching into a little cluster, while often 

 you see but one purple bell, the base of which is 

 quite hidden in the turf. This is a campanula 

 which grows to some height in the hedgerows below ; 

 but it is apt in richer soil to become a somewhat 

 coarse and untidy plant, and never equals in beauty 

 the little gentian-like bell-flower of the hills. 



Hovering over these plants, and over harebell, 

 hawkweed, scabious, and dwarf thistle, are innumer- 

 able humble-bees and butterflies. Even at the very 

 top, and on a breezy day, a Eed Admiral will pass 

 you, fresh from the chrysalis, with that matchless 



