JULY 145 



twilight shuts down more abruptly. Nature marks 

 the epoch in her calendar by the flowering of the hair 

 bell, of the heather, and of the dwarf -furze which 

 lends a golden glow to the rough slopes from now 

 onwards till October. The first returning visitors 

 from the north — Dunlin and Sanderling, Whimbrel 

 and Turnstone — reach our shores, to wade in the 

 shallows or pick up sand-hoppers from the masses of 

 drifted weed. •.; 



At the very end of the month certain birds, as the 

 Chiffchaff and Willow Wren, commence to sing again 

 in a quiet, subdued manner. The Chaffinch, too, 

 begins his broken song of late summer, but an im- 

 perfect echo of the rattling challenge which he threw 

 to his mates in May. And the Robin on the rose-trellis 

 warbles a low and slender strain which has in it a fore- 

 taste of autumn and of leafless boughs. It is the 

 writing upon the wall which tells of coming change 

 and of the passing of all that summer brings. 



SEA-FOWL HAUNTS. 



Sea-birds are not as a rule early breeders, and July 

 finds the fullest activity still prevailing in the great 

 sea-fowl nurseries which are scattered round our coasts. 

 There are low islets above which the graceful terns 

 hover thick as snowflakes, reef and skerry tenanted by 

 cormorant and gull, stacks and pinnacles about whose 



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