The Travellers 



could not escape the insect, which is so highly 

 sensitive to the atmospheric variations, the 

 band of travellers had tal^en shelter under a 

 stone, waiting for the rain to stop before 

 resuming their flight. Whence did they 

 come ? Whither were they bent ? 



In this same month of August and still 

 more in September, we are visited, In our 

 warm, olive-clad regions, by caravans of little 

 birds of passage descending by easy stages 

 from the countries where they have wooed 

 and loved, countries cooler, more thickly 

 wooded, less wild than ours, where they have 

 reared their broods. They arrive almost on 

 a fixed day, In an unvarying order, as though 

 guided by the dates of a calendar known only 

 to themselves. They sojourn for some time 

 In our plains, a halting-place rich in insects, 

 which form the exclusive fare of most of 

 them; they ransack every clod In our fields, 

 where the ploughshare by now has laid bare 

 In the furrows a mukitude of grubs, their 

 special delight; thanks to this diet, they soon 

 put on a fine cushion of fat, a storehouse of 

 reserve provisions for the coming exertions; 

 and at last, supplied with this viaticum, they 

 continue their southward flight, making for 

 the winterless lands where Insects are never 

 241 



