272 Summer Studies of Birds and Books CHAP. 



more likely, I think, that I simply failed to notice 

 what was going on. The flight of these birds is so 

 deviating that its general direction may very easily 

 be missed, and in fact it is almost indispensable that 

 the observer should be posted on some commanding 

 height in order to appreciate it. I have seen the 

 same kind of migration going on in the Midlands 

 since that visit to Lulworth, but found it very diffi- 

 cult to follow and make sure of, owing to the want 

 of such a point of vantage as that noble ridge of 

 down. 



On returning that autumn to my Oxfordshire 

 home, I found that considerable parties of Swallows 

 and Martins were passing over the village at intervals 

 every forenoon. Our own birds, which regularly 

 gather on my house roof for a week or two before they 

 leave, had apparently departed ; but from north and 

 west fresh companies continued to arrive, and it was 

 long before we felt that "the Swallows had really 

 gone." These strangers lingered a while about the 

 village, generally in the neighbourhood of the church, 

 and then took their departure in a south-easterly 

 direction along the line of our valley. But, as I have 

 already said, it was difficult to trace their line of 

 flight, and impossible to follow it for any distance, 

 owing to the want of a commanding hill whence I 

 could sweep the whole country with my glass. I 

 may mention that one day at nightfall 1 found a 



