GOOD-BY TO THE BIRDS. 221 



However, it is not my purpose in this chapter to 

 deal with the subject in a general way, but rather 

 to record some of my observations on the south- 

 ward procession of the birds in the autumn. The 

 air is full of fluttering wings ; I can almost feel 

 the quick pulsations in my study, as I try to steal 

 an hour for indoor work, when I really want to be 

 out of doors " watching the procession." I could 

 fully sympathize with the feeling of a charming 

 writer on birds in Massachusetts when he wrote 

 me last spring : " I can hardh^ remain indoors 

 long enough to perform my daily stint; " and now 

 that the autumnal procession is at its height, I 

 feel an almost iri'esistible impulse every few min- 

 utes to make a dash for the woods. What if some 

 rare bird should pass while I am sitting at my desk 

 scrawling these lines ! It would be an irreparable 

 loss. 



Early in the migrating season the southward- 

 bound birds pass in single file, then in double file, 

 then four and five abreast, and finally in regiments, 

 companies and armies as numerous as the hosts 

 with which Xerxes made his onslaught upon the 

 Greeks. Sometimes a platoon of these feathered 

 marchers take possession of the maples before the 

 house.. Often as I pass along tlie streets on these 



