AN OCTOBER DIARY. 309 



ally considered as migratory, bnt which are strictly 

 resident in this neighborhood. Indeed, I have always 

 classed them among our winter birds, because it is from 

 autumn to early spring that they sing most frequently 

 and become most prominent among the birds seen dur- 

 ing the rambles of this time of year. I would not have 

 it understood that they are silent during summer, but 

 then they are lost in the multitude, from not possessing 

 sufficiently strong features of shape or song to attract 

 particular attention. Curiously enough, these birds are 

 not partial to our meadows as formerly. The great 

 majority of all that I have seen of late years have been 

 in the upland fields, and no longer do I find them in 

 flocks. A dozen at most, and these scattered, is what 

 one usually sees, and oftener a single pair. 



How often I have been told that the swallows gather 

 in force in some good convening ground, and, after dis- 

 cussing the subject on the 10th of September, depart on 

 the 11th. It is an old woman's story, which I know 

 dates back to the seventeenth century in my own fam- 

 ily, and, like nine tenths of these sayings, unfortunately 

 indestructible, it is absolutely false. Not even a hard 

 frost sends them off. At least, I saw thousands to-day — 

 just a month later than they should be — merry and ac- 

 tive as in June, and I do not believe they will go for a 

 week or more, if the weather moderates. So long as the 

 food supply keeps up swallows are happy, and will not 

 worry about possible cold snaps. If these come, then it 

 will be time enough for them to go. The swallows 

 seen to-day were not all of one species. 



