SWIFTS, SWALLOWS AND MARTINS 



WHEN the trout-fisherman sees the first 

 martins and swallows dipping over 

 the sward of the water-meadows and 

 skimming the surface of the stream in hot 

 pursuit of such harried water-insects as have 

 escaped the jaws of greedy fish, he knows 

 that summer is coming in. The signs of spring 

 have been evident in the budding hedgerows 

 for some weeks. The rooks are cawing in the 

 elms, the cuckoo's note has been heard in 

 the spinney for some time before these little 

 visitors pass in jerky flight up and down the 

 valley. Then, a little later, come the swifts 

 the black and screaming swifts which, 

 though learned folk may be right in sundering 

 them utterly from their smaller travelling 

 companions from the sunny south, will always 

 in the popular fancy be associated with the 

 rest. Colonies of swifts, swallows, and martins 

 are a dominant feature of English village life 

 during the warm months ; and though there 

 are fastidious folk who take not wholly 

 culpable exception to their little visitors on 

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