i86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



year. We have fewer instances recorded of single swallows, seen at 

 unusually early dates, than of birds of any other family. Some, in- 

 deed, arrive much earlier than do others, as, for instance, the bank- 

 swallow ; but the variation in date of arrival, throughout any ten years, 

 is certainly much less than with other birds, and with some of them it 

 is surprisingly regular, but not absolutely so, as so often asserted. 



Let us now glance at the peculiarities of this family of birds, and 

 compare them with the thrushes and warblers. One marked differ- 

 ence at once is seen ; that is, that the swallows have a wonderful flight- 

 power, and the thrushes and warblers are weak in their powers of 

 flight, positively as well as comparatively : and our observations bear 

 us out in asserting, as a law of migration, that its regularity is in pro- 

 portion to and solely dependent on the flight-powers of the species. 

 With the entire list of inland birds of New Jersey, we believe this to 

 hold good. 



We have already expressed our belief that many birds have the 

 ability to foretell a coming storm. As this is not directly connected 

 with the subject of our essay, as we are now considering it, we will 

 pass to another feature of this prophetic power, as it apparently is, in 

 birds, and that is, their ability to judge of the general character of the 

 coming season, by a visit of a few days' duration early in spring. We 

 have so frequently noticed that certain birds, common to a locality dur- 

 ing the summer, occasionally fail to visit it, except one or two individ- 

 uals, that in April come for a few days, that it has appeared to us that 

 these " pioneer" birds saw satisfactory reasons for believing that there 

 would be a scarcity of food, and so return to meet their fellows, and 

 informing them, they all depart to " fresh fields and pastures new," 

 just as a single crow, discovering danger, will turn a whole colony 

 from their course as they are going to their roosting-place. This, be 

 it understood, is our supposition, and may be wholly untrue ; but how 

 are we to interpret the meaning of any habit or particular movement 

 of a bird, except by the human standard ? An act on the part of a 

 bird is intelligible to us only as we would interpret a corresponding 

 act in man; and these acts in birds and men, producing allied results, 

 indicate that close connection between all animal life which is so read- 

 ily compi'ehended from an evolution stand-point. Now, as an instance 

 of this " foretelling " power in birds, we noted, during the past spring, 

 the arrival of the first chewink {Pipilo erythrophthalmus) on April 

 27th. Busily among the dried leaves and tangled briers it hopped, 

 enlivening the thicket with its constant song just as a dozen of its kind 

 had done throughout the preceding summer. In a few days it had 

 disappeared, and not a chewink has been seen or heard for nearly six 

 months. Now a few are noticed on their way south from the country 

 north of us. This locality is one where these birds usually congre- 

 gate, and we have often found a dozen nests in the limits of the spot. 

 But a few miles away, these birds were as abundant as usual. In 



