ix Bindon Hill 241 



not have it directly behind them, take a station any- 

 where on the narrow ridge, and look for the passage 

 of Swallows and Martins from west to east. They 

 will come in parties great or small, and if the day is 

 warm and the breeze on their beam, they will dally 

 a while on Bindon's flanks, and may deceive you 

 into fancying that they are his own birds. But 

 watch steadily, and you will see that they are gradu- 

 ally passing you ; follow them with the glass to the 

 eastward, and you may make sure that they are 

 hastening to some point where the Channel is 

 narrower, and where perhaps they will wait a day 

 or two for a favourable crossing, " with great yearn- 

 ing for the further shore." Earely do they travel 

 with a strong wind behind them ; it carries them 

 too fast to allow them to collect food, and disturbs 

 the sit of their feathers. Once I have seen a few in 

 this predicament, and travelling so straight and so 

 swiftly that I tried to time them with the seconds- 

 hand of my watch. To the best of my belief they 

 covered half a mile in fifteen seconds, or little more ; 

 they were therefore making nearly two miles in a 

 minute, and supposing they went straight on at the 

 same pace, might reach the coast of Kent in little 

 more than an hour. 



But they will not go so far to-night ; the sun is 

 sinking, and, clear as all the country is to the north- 

 ward, there is a mist rising from the sea which will 



e 

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