1 62 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



who will look at them, a sociological 

 drama — name it, The Ideal Republic 

 of Birdland. 



As the birds change their plumage 

 and drift, their companions, the leaves, 

 soon follow, knowing that their protec- 

 tion is no longer needed. Down on 

 the dunes, the summer-bright first of 

 September the wood swallows came, 

 and we watch and wait and thrill as 

 one by one the birds of spring return 

 and in a motley dress flutter about us. 

 Some come on night wings, others stop 

 to rest at twilight, in flocks of a kind, 

 by twos and threes, or in a strag- 

 gling army together, all tribe barriers 

 dropped, all social etiquette banished. 



The blue sky and gold sun, filtered 

 together, shoot green glints on the 

 dunes, on the water, on the spume- 

 edged tide pools, where the sandpipers 

 patter and leave their sharp footprints; 



