120 Timeless Night 



companies. Moths and other insects which help to 

 fertilize these fragrant plants of night seem to be 

 drawn by sight as well as by scent. If we search 

 with a light along a garden border, we find them 

 feeding on blossoms which to us are scentless as 

 well as on those which drench the night. As long 

 as the air keeps the warmth of evening, and the 

 scent pours forth, the filmy wings vibrate about 

 the blossoms ; then, as the scent fails, and the air 

 grows chilly, the moths withdraw, leaving the 

 hungry bats still hunting impatiently in the dawn. 

 Only the scent of the cut hayfields still blows through 

 the morning air, as fragrant in the dewy coolness 

 as in the dancing air of noon ; and while the bats 

 still flit about the elm-tops, the first bumble-bee 

 wakes on the honeysuckle-blossom where it has 

 bivouacked, and sets to work again before sunrise. 



Before the hay is cut, the gold and silver wings 

 of the ghost swift moths are thickly strewn each 

 morning on the paths and roads through the hay- 

 fields, and show how rich a harvest the bats gather 

 even in the short June nights. But by July this 

 well-stocked hunting-ground begins to fail them, 

 and they are forced to hunt on into daylight ; just 

 as in winter, when few insects fly at night, they 

 work in the mild afternoons. 



By the end of June the wonderful chorus of song 

 which bursts out a little before sunrise in the height 

 of the nesting season has dwindled to a few voices. 

 Dawn comes less jubilant than solemn; but still 

 the skylarks leap singing together into the grey 

 air for the earliest song of all, before the Plough has 



