7A r FULL CAREER. 177 



but is really five ; the top of the petal divided, which gives 

 the appearance ; a delicate, beautiful white ; leaves in pairs, 

 pointed. 



" Humble-bees do suck cowslips." 



" May 14. Lark singing beautifully in the still dark and 

 clouded sky at a quarter to three o'clock in the morning ; 

 about twenty minutes afterwards the first thrush ; thought 

 I heard distant cuckoo not sure ; and ten minutes after that 

 the copse by garden perfectly ringing with the music. A 

 beautiful May morning ; thoroughly English morning : 

 southerly wind, warm light breeze, smart showers of warm 

 rain, and intervals of brilliant sunshine ; the leaves in copse 

 beautiful delicate green, refreshed, cleaned, and a still more 

 lovely green from the shower ; behind them the blue sky, 

 and above the bright sun ; white detached clouds sailing 

 past. That is the morning ; afternoon more cloudy. 



" More swifts later in evening. The first was flying low 

 down against wind ; seemed to progress from tip to tip of 

 wing, alternately throwing himself along, now one tip down- 

 wards, now the other, like hand- over-hand swimming. 

 Furze-chat, first in furze opposite, perched on high branch 

 of furze above the golden blossom thick on that branch ; a 

 way of shaking wings while perched ; * chat-chat ' low ; 

 head and part of neck black, white ring or band below, 

 brownish general colour. Nightingale singing on elm- 

 branch a large, thick branch, projecting over the green 

 by roadside perched some twenty-five feet high. Yellow- 

 hammer noticed a day or two ago perched on branch length- 

 wise, not across. Oaks : more oaks out. Ash : thought I saw 

 one with the large black buds enlarged||and lengthened, but 

 not yet burst." 



" May 18. The white-throat feeds on the brink of the 

 ditch, perching on fallen sticks or small bushes ; there is 

 then no appearance of a crest ; afterwards he flies up to the 

 topmost twig of the bush, or on a sapling tree, and immedi- 



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