214 JOTTINGS ABOUT BIRDS. 



meadow brown, and the delicate little blue ; now 

 and then the gloriously-arrayed peacock or admiral 

 skims past on more powerful wings, mounts the 

 hedges, and is gone on its mazy way before we 

 have time to admire its painted charms. Bees 

 of many species search the blooms for hidden 

 sweets ; whilst the pretty banded shells of various 

 sorts of Helix garnish the grass and leaves. Life 

 is everywhere ; in countless variety of forms it is 

 constantly appealing for admiration and scrutiny. 



Here in these lanes we may wander in perfect 

 seclusion by the hour together without once meeting 

 a human being. The variety of scene is constant. 

 Past sleepy little village after village ; past cosily- 

 thatched farmhouses and cottages, almost buried in 

 flowers and foliage, and under whose eaves the swifts 

 are ever gliding and screaming, our route along 

 the lanes will lead us. Every now and then a 

 peep is obtained at some orchard, the trees not 

 yet quite stripped of their pink-and-whire bloom, 

 or across the wide expanse of fields and woodlands 

 at the far-away blue sea on the one hand, or the 

 gray heights and blue, misty outlines of the distant 

 tors and ridges of Dartmoor on the other. 



Sometimes where the lane widens out into a bit 

 of waste common land, now decked with yellow 



