176 DOWN THE MEADOW. 



one of the elders approached. Whether the 

 young in these social nurseries know their par- 

 ticular parents has always been an interesting 

 question with me, and I studied their ways for 

 some clew to the truth. I noticed when one of 

 the parents swooped over them or came near, to 

 alight, not more than one or two of the waiting 

 babies on the wire would flutter and ask for 

 food, and I saw also, on such occasions, that 

 they were usually fed. When somewhat later 

 another parent came near, a different little one 

 would ask and be fed. They did not all, or even 

 any great number, ask every time an old bird 

 came about, which certainly looked as if the lit- 

 tle ones knew their own parents. 



After a while the swallows came out in great 

 numbers. There were hundreds at a time on 

 the telegraph wires, all, both old and young, 

 talking at once — as it apjDcared. They had 

 flight exercises, when the whole flock rose at 

 once, filling the air with wings. This gathering 

 continued for three or four days, while all other 

 birds seemed to have disappeared, and then one 

 morning they were gone to the marsh, where we 

 often saw them afterward, and the other birds 

 returned to their usual haunts. 



