230 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



the summer memories of evening thunder-clouds. 

 Now eastward glimmers a rosy glow. It spreads, 

 brighter and fiercer as though a great fire raged 

 beyond the horizon ; and above it are flecks of 

 gold. The nearer mists, hurrying across the sky, 

 are still gloomy and dark ; but yonder is the path- 

 way of the sky, strewn with glory for the king of 

 day, the sky itself is changing colour, and the 

 clouds assume a hundred hues. Some are a dark 

 and lurid red, as they might be evil ghosts dis- 

 covered in crime and now retiring baffled ; and in 

 the farthest. distance are fleecy golden fragments 

 on a sea-green sky. The sun pierces the mists, 

 gilds the elms, and kindles into tongues of flame 

 the dew-tipped foliage of the hedge. Obviously 

 his rays bring joy to the waking world. The lark 

 is already aloft, trying to sing, learning and 

 repeating many times his now brief passages of 

 melody, and soaring higher and higher. Here 

 come the laggard rooks ; there a cloud of starlings ; 

 and farther up the sky a great flight of wood- 

 pigeons passes onward. 



At all seasons of the year birds are most easily 



