88 MIGRATION AND FLIGHT. 



or go ; whence it has been inferred, that they pursue their 

 course at night. And that this is the case we can give 

 tolerably good evidence from actual observation. Happening 

 to be at Fecamp, a seaport at the foot of the highest cliffs in 

 France, immediately opposite the English coast, on the 14th 

 of September, 1833, we had ascended the heights to visit the 

 rums of an old chapel before sunrise. On looking towards 

 the sea, the first object presenting itself was a flight of about 

 one hundred Swallows, evidently just making the land, and 

 whirling in a hurried manner over the upper ledge of the 

 precipice. On the supposition that these birds had quitted 

 the British shores about an hour before dawn, they would 

 naturally have arrived at the point where they were thus seen 

 landing : others probably had come in before ; as in the course 

 of the morning we saw, on the roof of a large building in the 

 town, which was exposed to the full force of the sun's rays, 

 an infinitely greater number of Swallows collected together 

 than we had observed throughout the whole of the season. 



That this is the practice of many other birds indeed is well 

 known, particularly of those which are in the habit of feeding 

 at night. In the fen countries, for instance, which, on account 

 of their ditches and marshes, are favourite haunts for water- 

 birds, in almost every still night, more especially about the 

 time of their usual journeys either to or from the fens, the 

 whistling sound of thousands of wings, or the shrill notes of 

 call by which these vast flights are kept together in the 

 darkness of night, may be heard overhead. 



Birds too, in their longer flights, no doubt avail them- 

 selves of different currents in the air ; for we know that often, 

 when the lower stream of air is blowing from the west, 

 another stream far above may be blowing from another 

 direction ; this may be frequently seen by the motion of the 

 upper clouds moving in contrary directions from those at a 

 lower level. Those most beautiful of all the feathered race, 

 the Birds of Paradise, (not only distinguished by their bril- 

 liant plumage, but from their being singularly decorated with 

 tufts or trains of light, loose, fringy feathers, which render it 

 difficult for them to fly, excepting against the wind, which 



