NOTES OF THE OBSERVATION OF SWALLOWS. 127 



As, one day early in September, I was walking across an old 

 common, my attention was attrai'ted by the notes of the swallow, 

 which I fonnd proceeded from some twenty or thirty birds 

 clustering round a small fir-tree, upon the branches of which 

 several of them had already perched. Approaching them very 

 closely, I sat down to watch them, and was somewhat surprised 

 to observe that they appeared to be all young birds, for in none 

 of them could I discover those two long tail feathers which 

 are so characteristic of the adult swallow. At length all had 

 settled upon the tree, when suddenly there sounded the cry of 

 a swallow from some distance off on the common, and instantly 

 the birds were again in motion, rising with one accord into the 

 air and quickly betaking themselves in the direction whence 

 the cry proceeded. I thought that I had seen the last of them, 

 but in a short space of time back they all came, straggling in 

 two and three at a time, fatigued, seemingly, for they settled 

 immediately on the tree, and then, for the first time, I coidd 

 perceive an adult bird. He was a grand specimen, and, as he 

 flew over my head at a height of only a few feet, seemed rather 

 to court the admii'ation his power of flight demanded. Not for 

 long did he leave the young birds to tlaemselves, which at his 

 call directly rose and followed him, to return in time to rest once 

 more ; and again and again did I see this repeated. 



The only conclusion I could arrive at was, that the bird actually 

 was training the younger ones for the migration they shortly 

 would have to make, and marvellously, patiently, and well did he 

 perform the duty. As I have already said, I have frequently 

 seen the same thing happen since. 



It often used to puzzle me why the swallow should have those 

 two elongate tail-feathers, and at length I concluded that it may 

 be for this reason. In the young birds these feathers do not 

 extend much beyond the others, and their tails are wedge-shaped. 

 But then, young swallows do not obtain their food in quite the 

 same manner as the old birds. They frequent open spaces, and catch 

 their prey by hawking after it in the air. The adult swallows, on 

 the other hand, as often, and with exceedingly swift flight, traverse 

 hedgerows, lanes, and other narrow ways thickly obstructed by 

 ti-ailing boughs and branches, and by projecting twigs and sprays. 

 Now if we watch a swallow swiftly approaching us as we saunter 

 along those country lanes we all love so well, we notice that the 

 bird is bearing directly down upon u.s without altering its course, 

 and, indeed, there seems to be a risk of its colliding with us. But 

 observe it carefully, and just at that very moment when collision 

 appears inevitable, one wing is suddenly thrown up and then 

 so forcibly brought down again as instantaneously to change the 

 course sufficiently to avoid us, and the little bird, flashing past, 

 almost brushing us as it does so, has demonstrated to us such 

 a knowledge of dynamic force, and the power of controlling it, as 

 might put on their mettle even the na^■igators of our "ocean 

 greyhounds." But now, if we tui'n round, we see that one powerful 



