16 ORNITHOLOGICAL RA.MBLES. 



suddenly changing on tlie 3rd of May, a bright 

 cloudless sky and a warm sun seemed to infuse 

 new life into Nature. The swallows, which ever 

 since their arrival had only occasionally been 

 seen, either singly or in small parties, skimming 

 silently and hurriedly over the wet meadows, as 

 if to make the most of their time during the brief 

 intervals of sunshine, now suddenly appeared in 

 vast numbers; the very air seemed peopled with 

 them; the woods and groves rang with the joyful 

 songs of the summer warblers : the larks mounted 

 higher, and sang louder than before ; and every- 

 thing, even to the barometer, seemed to exult in 

 the glorious change. On such a morning I started 

 on horseback from Petworth to Parham. Instead 

 of pursuing the highway by Pulborough and Stor- 

 rington, I turned south, and for two or three miles 

 my path lay through one of those eccentric coun- 

 try lanes so well known to wayfarers in this part 

 of England, and which are not less remarkable 

 for their beauty than for their total disregard of all 

 modern principles of road-making; here climbing 

 the ridge of a hill, or descending its most abrupt 

 slope, when either extreme might easily have been 

 avoided ; there suddenly turning off in an oppo- 

 site direction to that which it had previously pur- 

 sued, and again resuming its original course; and 

 now eating its tunnel-like way between high sandy 



