30 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
burning leaves and brush pervades the air, you hear very 
few bird songs, for many birds have either dropped 
silently out of sight or collected in huge flocks, like the 
Swallow, swept by, and disappeared in the clouds, while 
others, like the Purple Grackle or Common Crow-Black- 
bird, — walk over the stubble and cover the trees, making 
such a creaking, crackling noise that one would surely 
think that their wings as well as voices were rusty and 
needed oiling. 
‘“ What has become of the birds? Where do they go 
when they disappear? 
‘“‘ Being warm-blooded animals they cannot dive into the 
mud and hide, like fishes, or crawl into cracks of tree 
bark and wrap themselves up in cocoons, like insects. 
Neither do they drop their feathers and die away as tender 
plants drop their leaves and disappear. 
‘““ People once believed that Swallows dived through the 
water into the mud, where they rolled themselves into 
balls and slept all winter. They thought this because 
Swallows are seen in early autumn in flocks about ponds 
and marshes, where they feed upon the insects that 
abound in such places. People thought that as Swallows 
were last seen in these places before they disappeared they 
must have gone under the water; but this was merely 
guessing, which is a very dangerous thing to do when 
trying to find out the plans that Nature makes for her 
great family. 
“‘ Later yet, when the snow begins to fall, there is little or 
no bird music, only the hoot of an Owl, the shrill cry of the 
Hawks, the ‘quank, quank’ of the Nuthatch, that runs up 
and down the tree trunks like a mouse in gray-and-white 
