JANUARY 61 



But now the holidays are past, and the holiday-makers 

 have returned to tjieir daily round, leaving the cicadas in 

 full possession. And, though they have scorned and insulted 

 her, no doubt Nature has dropped a tiny gift upon each one of 

 them, which, quite unconsciously, they will carry with them 

 through the workaday world for many a day to come. 



And now, just when the holiday-makers have left the bush 

 to recover its accustomed peace, come still greater enemies 

 the hot wind and the bush fires. On every side the horizon 

 is hidden in a cloud of smoke, and even the gum leaves are 

 drooping beneath the intense heat of the last few days. But 

 though, when standing on the top of the hill, one sees nothing 

 but a smoky haze, down in my own particular gully the only 

 sign of the fire is the pungent smell which comes on the wind. 

 It is far too hot through the daytime tio venture out with any 

 pleasure ; but this evening, after sunset, I .wended my way 

 down into the cool of the gully. On the fence just at the 

 bottom of the hill I saw four young wood-swallows, with 

 mottled grey backs, sitting huddled together, evidently feeling 

 the heat very badly, while a little further on a young rufous- 

 breasted thickhead and his father sat gaping for breath in a 

 tea tree. Only a week ago I took my camera and photograph- 

 ed that same little thickhead and his brother, then just out of 

 their nest, and two more confiding .little birds I never met. 

 They let me catch them and stroke them without any trouble, 

 and one sat comfortably on the back of my hand while I 



