THE SWALLOW. 



IT is perhaps in the habits and movements of birds 

 that we have the most marked signs of the changing 

 seasons. Thus, as winter almost insensibly passes into 

 spring, bird life is sure to make us aware of the change ; 

 for does not the charming Blackcap, fresh from a southern 

 haunt, sit and warble on the yet leafless branches, and 

 the Throstle and the Blackbird, Cock Robin and Jenny 

 Wren, carol forth the praises of the vernal year from 

 every tree and hedgerow ? Then, too, the ever welcome 

 stranger Cuckoo's notes are heard sounding so full and 

 clear from the distant woods, and the Skylark and the 

 Bunting seem overflowing with rapture for the change of 

 season. As spring rolls imperceptibly into summer the 

 extreme vivacity of bird life is a predominant feature. 

 Each bird is busy : the fluttering of a thousand wings 

 amongst the branches, and the abundance and power of 



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