Part 2

VIGNETTES OF NATURE (ii) 43

HAWK NOTES 46

PROPHET BIRDS 50

A BIRD MYSTIC 53

SAMARITANS 57

SPORTSMEN OF THE RUBBISH-HEAPS 60

RUNAWAYS 65

LONDON CHILDREN AND WILD FLOWERS 68

MEADOW GRASSES 82

TIGER’S TEETH 96

THE OUTLAW 116

PEREGRINES IN LOVE 130

MIDSUMMER NIGHT 136

A FEATHERED WASTER 145

INVOCATION 150

COCKNEY BIRD TRIPPERS 154

“FULLNESS AFTER DEARTH” 157

CUCKOO NOTES 160

DAYS OF AUTUMN 166

SWALLOW BROW: A FANTASY 182

WINTER’S EVE 196

ERNIE 204

A SEED IN WASTE PLACES 212

THE CHANGE: A FANTASY 217

PROSERPINE’S MESSAGE 236

STRIX FLAMMEA 243

THE LONE SWALLOWS

Along the trackless and uncharted airlines from the southern sun they came, a lone pair of swallows, arriving with weakly and uncertain flight from over the wastes of the sea. They rested on a gorse bush, their blue backs beautiful against the store of golden blossom guarded by the jade spikes. The last day of March had just blown with the wind into eternity. Symbols of summer and of loveliness, they came with young April, while yet the celandines were unbleached, while the wild white strawberry and ragged-robin were opening with the dog violet. On the headland the flowers struggle for both life and livelihood, the sward is cropped close by generations of sheep, and the sea-wind is damp and cold. Perhaps the swallows hoped to nest, as their ancestors had done centuries since, in the cave under the precipice at the headland’s snout, or that love for its protection after the wearying journey was new-born in their hearts. One cannot say; but the pair remained there.