120 WILD BIRDS 



volatile little birds ; but, though I thought I knew 

 their habits well, I did not know till lately that they 

 take dust baths in the high road like house sparrows 

 and a few other birds. I know now that they do, 

 for I came upon one lying down on a dusty, 

 flint-made road, and bathing there with great, tiny 

 zest! 



The half-hour or so at sundown after a bright 

 September day is now often sublimed. It is the time 

 which cannot well be described as quite day or quite 

 dusk. It is atween the two. 



This half-hour is well known to all who study 

 light effects. Lights are struck across the woods 

 and fields at this time that are seen and enjoyed at 

 no other moment in the day. There is a gold yellow 

 sunset perhaps, and the west is dabbled with bright 

 red patches of cloud-fleece, and the southern sky 

 may be steeped in a pink haze or smokiness : but, 

 apart from the sky, bright colour plays a small part 

 or no part in this scene. 



It is the crosslights and the alternations of light 

 and shade that are so choice. They belong wholly to 

 this one short phase of day. Nothing of the kind 

 is looked for in the corresponding period between 

 dusk and full light at dawn : then a certain sombre 

 greyness is the feature of the atmosphere, and 

 there are none of the crosslights and shades of the 

 half hour at eve. 



During this phase, as through the entire September 

 day in large woods, the ring dove's earnest note 

 goes on. Save for the lesser strains of redbreast 



