BANK-MARTIN 41 



my horse at one time ; but from the rapidity of their 

 motions it is impossible to count them. I have 

 frequently noticed individuals of the four most 

 common species following me together ; but after 

 sunset, and when the other species have long forsaken 

 the open grassy plain for the shelter of trees and 

 houses, the diminutive Bank-Martin continues to 

 keep the traveller company. At such a time, as they 

 glide about in the dusk of evening, conversing 

 together in low tremulous tones, they have a pecu- 

 liarly sorrowful appearance, seeming like homeless 

 little wanderers over the great level plains. 



When the season of migration approaches they 

 begin to congregate in parties not very large, though 

 sometimes as many as one or two hundred individuals 

 are seen together ; these companies spend much of 

 their time perched close together on weeds, low trees, 

 fences, or other slightly elevated situations, and pay 

 little heed to a person approaching, but seem pre- 

 occupied or preyed upon by some trouble that has no 

 visible cause. 



The time immediately preceding the departure of 

 the Martins is indeed a season of very deep interest 

 to the observer of nature. The birds in many cases 

 seem to forget the attachment of the sexes and their 

 songs and aerial recreations ; they already begin to 

 feel the premonitions of that marvellous instinct that 

 urges them hence : not yet an irresistible impulse, 

 it is a vague sense of disquiet ; but its influence is 

 manifest in their language and gestures, their wild 

 manner of flight, and their listless intervals. 



