MAY. 8 1 



from home to feed we see also the origin of its 

 homing ability. Lastly, we see how these two gifts 

 enable it to find its way back to its breeding quarters 

 through hundreds of miles of adverse weather. 



DEAD SWALLOWS. 



May 22. When the cold winds were blowing, 

 and driving rain-clouds shut out the sunshine day 

 after day, we thought ourselves badly used, and our 

 inclement Bank Holiday was a national grievance. 

 But what was our hardship compared with that of 

 the swallows, the featherweight athletes of the air, 

 who thought so little of the perils of a thousand 

 miles by land and sea, if only they might be with 

 us again in the spring ? Day after day, week after 

 week, since their arrival, they struggled against hard 

 fate. Each dawn saw them stretching their numbed 

 wings in feebler flight, to and fro, to and fro, over the 

 cold-rippling pond, in the teeth of a cold north-easter. 

 Dusk fell upon them, still working hard for life, to 

 and fro, to and fro, over the darkling water. And 

 now, on the writer's table, lie three dead swallows 

 picked up in a room whose leeward window had 

 been open through the storms of Whit Monday and 

 Tuesday. If three swallows in their desperate ex- 

 tremity found this one open window leading to quiet 

 shelter where they could die in peace, how many 

 little corpses are lying in their more familiar haunts 

 in outhouse, barn, or cowshed ? 



