FLOCKS OF BIRDS 



AERTAIN road leading outwards from 

 a suburb enters at once among fields. 

 It soon passes a thick hedge dividing 

 a meadow from a cornfield, in which 

 hedge is a spot where some bluebells may be 

 found in spring. Wild flowers are best seen when 

 in masses, a few scattered along a bank much 

 concealed by grass and foliage are lost, except, 

 indeed, upon those who love them for their own 

 sake. 



This meadow in June, for instance, when the 

 buttercups are high, is one broad expanse of bur- 

 nished gold. The most careless passer-by can 

 hardly fail to cast a glance over acres of rich 

 yellow. The furze, again, especially after a 

 shower has refreshed its tint, must be seen by all. 

 Where broom grows thickly, lifting its colour well 

 into view, or where the bird's-foot lotus in full 

 summer overruns the thin grass of some upland 

 pasture, the eye cannot choose but acknowledge it. 

 So, too, with charlock, and with hillsides purple 

 with heath, or where the woodlands are azure wjth 

 31 



