RUSTLING WINGS 1 65 



squad drill. On the first day some 

 stragglers dropped from the column, 

 some clung to the bushes and chirped 

 in irresolution, but on the third day 

 they flew as one swallow. 



After this, an easterly storm pre- 

 vailed and the marshes were flooded. 

 Upon the seventh of September I went 

 again to the beach, and was watching 

 a fishhawk, who had twice lost his prey 

 in mid-air, when a heap of metallic 

 seaweed beyond me seemed to move, 

 and, startled, I saw the swallows rise 

 in a straight line, then angle and sweep 

 over the Sound at a point west of south, 

 and that was their last rehearsal. 



I should like to know if they lingered 

 on Long Island; for if they began their 

 long southward journey, they travel by 

 day, as their start was at ten o'clock in 

 the morning. 



Meanwhile the purple grackles, which 



