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Bird -Lore 



spectacle ensues. At first it looks as if confusion reigned, but soon 

 the hosts of fleet-winged birds no longer whirl aimlessly through 

 space. All mass and muster, and perform strange evolutions with 

 amazing swiftness and precision. Now we see them scattering and 

 spreading over the whole area on which they intend to roost, appa- 

 rently to make sure that no danger lurks beneath the grasses. Here 

 they come, skimming, almost touching, the spartina, pass by, and 

 speed onward until lost to sight for a few moments, when all at 

 once a great cloud of moving specks is visible in the distant 

 sky. The specks are Swallows, and the cloud has life ; it moves, it 

 rolls, it swells, it conies, it breaks and, like a torrent of wing-borne 

 arrows, darts upon us, scattering and spreading out, as it descends 

 for another wild dash low over the spartina. 



The same wonderful maneuvers repeat themselves as long as 

 the evening twilight lasts, and, though with each descent the cloud 

 does shrink in size, it does not cease to rise again until black night 

 has fully settled down, and even after dark small droves of be- 

 wildered birds rush madly by our side. Being well within the range 

 of the now settled birds, we cannot go away without disturbing some 

 in their repose ; although they are dispersed over a large area, every 

 now and then one will be seen to scamper out and vanish in the 

 darkness. 



VOUNG EUROPEAN MARTINS AND XEST 

 Photographed from nature by '* C. R." 



