At any other time of year they would have run, or flown; but then, though scarcely forty yards away and perfectly visible, they simply ceased feeding but showed no further alarm.
Upon the plough birds in general should look as their best friend, for it provides them with the staff of life as much as it does man.

The earth turned up under the share yields them grubs and insects and worms: the seed is sown and the clods harrowed, and they take a second toll; the weeds are hoed or pulled up, and at their roots there are more insects; from the stalk and ears and the bloom of the rising corn they seize caterpillars; when it is ripe they enjoy the grain; when it is cut and carried there are ears in the stubble, and they can then feast on the seeds of the innumerable plants that flowered among it; finally comes the plough again.

It is as if the men and horses worked for the birds.
The horse-chestnut trees in the narrow copse bloom; the bees are humming everywhere and summer is at hand.

Presently the brown cockchafers will come almost like an army of locusts, as suddenly appearing without a sign.

They seem to be particularly numerous where there is much maple in the hedges.
Resting now on the sward by the stream--contracted in seeming by the weeds and flags and fresh sedges--there comes the distant murmur of voices and the musical laugh of girls.