8 STUDIES IN BIRD-MIGRATION 



returning to freedom, and occupying- their old nests or 

 building new ones, being overtaken by rough weather 

 and a heavy fall of snow, all alike die, so that none are 

 seen the whole summer about the houses or river banks, 

 except a very few which have risen from the deeper 

 waters, or journeying from elsewhere, are seen, when 

 winter is wholly dispelled in May, to arrive, about to 

 reproduce offspring for the good of nature." 



The picture here given is from a photograph taken 



direct from Glaus Magnus's work, for the loan of which 

 I was indebted to the late Professor Newton, It 

 represents two fishermen standing on the edge of the 

 ice and drawing towards them a net containing a 

 mixed "catch" of Swallows and fishes. 



This ridiculous story was accepted by a number 

 of distinguished naturalists, including Linnaeus : and 

 John Reinhold Forster, in his edition of Kalm's Travels 

 into North America (p. 140), informs us that he can 

 reckon himself among the eye-witnesses of this " para- 



