258 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



their owners' music, tell us that the young are being 

 reared. Another change, and we know the turning point 

 of the year is at hand. The music of the feathered host, 

 as summer passeth away in favour of autumn, is visibly 

 on the decline, and the disappearance of the Cuckoo and 

 other early birds of passage tells us in silent language of 

 the season at hand. Autumn is declining : one by one 

 the migratory songsters leave us, and the departure of 

 the Swallows and the appearance of the Redwings 

 inform us that ere long winter in his hoary garb will 

 reign supreme around us. 



The Swallow, too, is a sure harbinger of the glorious 

 spring, and arrives here the third week in fresh and 

 vernal April, being a little later in its appearance than 

 the Martin or Sand Martin. You can instantly tell the 

 bird from the Swifts or Martins by its steel-blue upper 

 plumage and the acutely-forked tail. Swallows are very 

 common birds, and frequent, as a rule, the cultivated 

 lands in the neighbourhood of water, showing a decided 

 preference for the habitations of man. 



How gracefully the Swallows fly. See them cours- 

 ing over the daisy-bespangled grass fields ; now they 

 skim just over the blades of grass, and then with a rapid 

 stroke of their long wings mount into the air and come 

 hovering above your head, displaying their rich white 

 and chestnut plumage to perfection. Now they chase 

 each other for very joyfulness, uttering their sharp 

 twittering notes ; then they hover with expanded wings 

 like miniature Kestrels, or dart downwards with the 

 velocity of the Sparrowhawk ; anon they flit rapidly over 

 the neighbouring pool, occasionally dipping themselves 

 in its calm and placid waters, and leaving a long train 

 of rings marking their varied course. How easily they 

 turn, or glide over the surrounding hedges, never resting, 



