162 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



as early as the 10th of March, they were either flying to 

 and fro over the water in front of the site of their nests 

 of last year, or flying in and out of the old burrows, in- 

 specting their condition, but not preparing for the coming 

 duties of incubation. Thus early in the spring, their flight 

 is not as continued as it is a month later. Apparently they 

 have not recovered from the fatigue of their migratorial 

 journey, and they rest in small companies, not upon trees, 

 but, I may say, exclusively either at the openings of the 

 subterranean nests, or upon sticks, dead trees, and vegeta- 

 tion projecting from the water. Now add the very im- 

 portant fact that the amount of food to be found by these 

 swallows, thus early in the season, is very limited being 

 confined to a few hardy insects that are then astir if the 

 sun is shining and it becomes evident that, from an insuf- 

 ficient supply of food, their vigorous flight power of mid- 

 summer will be visibly affected. 



Add to this the depressing influences of cold rain- 

 storms, which they do not endeavor to avoid, and we 

 have causes sufficient to explain the well-attested fact 

 that these swallows are at this time of the year often to 

 be seen, as Kalm described those he saw in 1750, " as 

 wet as if they had been just come out of the sea." 



Let me now mention the details of an incident of this 

 kind. On the 17th of March, 1878, the weather for a 

 week previously having been fairly pleasant for the time 

 of year, a few swallows were seen ; it rained very hard 

 until about noon, when it cleared suddenly, the wind 

 shifting to the northwest. I started out for a short ram- 

 ble in search of Indian relics, and, passing by the bluff 

 that for years had been frequented by bank-swallows, I 

 was attracted by the incessant but feeble twitterings of 

 numbers of these birds ; none were to be seen. I looked 

 for them for some time, and finally found a hundred or 



