SWALLOW. 167 



peculiarly lively manner; but, in addition to this, it has a 

 soft and most pleasing warble, consisting of several rich 

 notes, and one that reminds us strongly of a passage in 

 the song of the Wren. This attractive warbling song is 

 uttered as the bird is on the wing, and often before 

 daybreak, when the bird is at rest. To my mind it 

 breathes a peculiar cheerfulness, coupled with gentleness 

 and untiring energy, and is in these particulars almost 

 unique amongst our familiar bird-songs. 



Mr. Hudson says of it : " The sound differs in quality 

 from that of other birds: it is perhaps more human; a 

 Swallow-like note may be heard in some of the most 

 beautiful contralto voices." 



The return of the Swallow tribe to their old haunts 

 has often been remarked ; birds carefully marked having 

 been found several years running in or near the old 

 nesting-place. How many thousand miles the bird must 

 have traversed in the meantime it is not easy even to 

 conjecture ; as regards migration alone, the distance 

 would be 5,000 miles annually, at the least, to which 

 should be added each day's aerial voyaging, the bird 

 often sixteen hours on the wing in the long days, at a 

 speed of shall we say? 60 miles an hour. Wonderful 

 indeed is this velocity, and yet it is much below that of 

 the Swift, which is believed at times to attain a rate 

 of speed almost twice as great ; yet more wonderful 

 still is that unerring instinct given by the great Creator 

 which enables these and other migratory birds to return 

 periodically, not only to the same country, but to the 

 same town, the same street, and the same well-known 

 nesting-place, year after year. " Yea, the Stork in the 

 heaven knoweth her appointed times ; and the Turtle, 



