2 7 o AUTUMN AND WINTER 



September, but much more restless and shifting. If we 

 keep close watch, we shall find that sooner or later, when 

 some party rises and circles in the air, it does not come back 

 to the perch as it did after its former sallies, but vanishes in 

 the southern sky. An hour or two later, the church spire or 

 barn roof may be once more thick with swallows or martins ; 

 but they are a new contingent. The same quiet coming and 

 going of smaller parties may be seen on an October day over 

 sheltered pools and rivers, or warm meadows in the lee of a 

 wood. The swallows sweep so regularly over the water or 

 past the boughs that they look like the regular summer 

 residents ; yet, ten minutes later, they may be gone, leaving 

 the surface of the pool spread empty between its orange 

 sedges. This quiet but constant stream of travel is even 

 more impressive than the great simultaneous movements of 

 the larger flocks. It suggests far more vividly the elusive 

 secrecy of the movement which has been depeopling our 

 copses and gardens for weeks past, till we awake to find 

 them almost desolate, or occupied by restless strangers. For 

 sheer impressiveness of numbers, the first place is easily 

 taken by the collection of a large flock of migrating swallows 

 in a roost in some reed or osier bed. They plunge down- 

 wards almost as wildly as roosting starlings ; and it was the 

 sight of the swallows plunging so quickly towards the water 

 on some autumn evening about the time when they were 

 seen no more which most helped to foster the belief that they 

 slept out the winter at the bottom of the rivers and ponds. 

 They also roost in crevices about the buildings which they 

 haunt by day. 



The distance travelled by migrating birds in autumn 

 varies enormously with different species. Marked storks 

 from Denmark, Germany, and Hungary have been identified 

 in the winter months in Syria and various parts of Central 



