CHAPTER XXXVI 



Swifts Powers of flight Hibernation Seeing in the dark Oriental 

 behaviour Ideal flying-machines Marvels of nature Freemasonry 

 amongst Swifts Excessive destruction of insects Devil's birds 

 Methody devils Swallows and Martins Jenny Spinners Life of an 

 insect Nature's balance upset by man The difficulty of readjusting it. 



ALTHOUGH the truthfulness of the old proverb which tells 

 us that " one swallow maketh not a summer, nor one wood- 

 cock a winter," cannot be gainsaid, the arrival of the first 

 Swift as clearly marks the advent of summer as the depar- 

 ture of the band testifies its close ; for not only are Swifts 

 amongst the last to come, and the first to go, of all our spring 

 to autumn migrants, but they are by far the most regular in 

 the observance of their appointed times and seasons. At 

 infrequent intervals, one or two may be observed before the 

 end of April, and occasionally some may tarry till the 

 middle of September ; but these are only the exceptions 

 which serve to prove the rule that they come with May, 

 and depart when a reference to the Calendar tells us that 

 " summer " has ended. Even when they are late in going, 

 August usually sees the last of them, and those observed 

 from time to time in October are more probably unlucky 

 stragglers that have lost their way, than birds that have 

 spent the summer, or been hatched, in the neighbourhood 

 of where they happen to be seen. My journals show that 

 only in four of the past thirty years have Swifts been seen 

 in October (1882, 1886, 1892, and 1903), the latest date 

 being the I4th, though there are records of single birds 

 having been met with as late as ist November, and even 

 December ist. 



Consequent on their magnificent powers of flight, Swifts 

 may be looked for to arrive almost on the same day in any 

 part of the country ; for once fairly started upon their long 



journey, there is probably little inducement to delay, and an 



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