THE SWALLOW 155 



roads to be taken, and who, having the presentiment 

 of the coming hour of migration, will agree about the 

 place of meeting ; then, they will disperse in the coun 

 try all around, to inform the whole clan. Many natu- 

 ralists noticed long ago that swallows have a peculiar 

 cry for the circumstance, which they call <( the cry of 

 assembly ». 



These preparations interested me exceedingly. I 

 could watch them from our garret window, where pre- 

 cisely two swallows had built their hemispheric nest of 

 straw and gravel, which they regularly occupied every 

 year. I had witnessed the return of our guests for the 

 last three years, having watched intently the process of 

 brooding and the training of the young ones. Once even, 

 after having read a book on swallows, I had caught one 

 of the parents by means of a net spread over the orifice 

 of the nest and I had tied a green silk string to its foot. 

 IIow happy I was the Following spring, to see in the nest 

 the same swallow having yet a bit of the green thread 

 tied to its foot ! This circumstance redoubled my inte- 

 rest in these birds which had come back from afar to 

 a dormer window in our humble dwelling ! 



Swallows had for mc that marvelous attraction that 

 draws us towards people who have travelled in foreign 

 countries. Their return was a sign of coming spring; 

 their departure always left me with an aching heart ; it 

 told me that the end of my holidays was drawing near 



