BIRDS AND MAN 51 



where people are walking about, is a familiar sight, 

 Swifts are just as confident. A short time ago, 

 while standing in the churchyard at Farnham, in 

 Surrey, watching a bunch of ten or twelve swifts 

 racing through the air, I noticed that on each return 

 to the church they followed the same line, doubling 

 round the tower on the same side, then sweeping 

 down close to the surface, and mounting again. 

 Going to the spot I put myself directly in their way 

 — on their race- course as it were, at that point 

 where it touched the earth ; but they did not on 

 that account vary their route ; each time they 

 came back they streamed screaming past my head 

 so near as almost to brush my face with their wings. 

 But I was never more struck by the unconcern at 

 the presence of man shown by these birds — swallows, 

 martins, and swifts — as on one occasion at Frensham, 

 when the birds were very numerous. This was in 

 the month of May, about five weeks after I had 

 witnessed the fight between two rabbits, and the 

 wonderful composure exhibited by a covey of par- 

 tridges through it all. It was on a close hot morn- 

 ing, after a night of rain, when, walking down to 

 Frensham Great Pond, I saw the birds hawking 

 about near the water. The may-flies were just out, 

 and in some mysterious way the news had been 



