NOVEMBER. 183 



us groundlings, you could see the higher clouds 

 travelling from the east ; and any bird that flew aloft 

 would have felt its chill, and, taking the hint to fly if 

 necessary, would very soon with the speed of its 

 flight added to that of the wind have reached a 

 region beyond the range of immediate cold. 



BIRDS AND COLD. 



Yet it is not, of course, the cold that the swallows 

 fear, nor, indeed, can we say that their migration is 

 prompted by fear in any shape. The cold which 

 comes with a wind from north and east in autumn 

 sweeps all insect life from the air ; and from the first 

 swallows that saved their lives by flying far for food 

 with the cold wind till they came to warmer regions 

 where it had spent its force, succeeding generations 

 have inherited a fixed life-saving instinct to fly with 

 the cold wind as soon as possible after their last 

 broods are on the wing. As for actual cold, birds 

 seem to feel it very little. Look at the swarms of 

 foreign starlings which come to us quite early in 

 autumn. It was certainly no dislike of cold which 

 drove them hither ; because in mid-winter, when you 

 shiver through warm gloves and overcoat, you may 

 see them gathering joyfully to bathe in the freezing 

 mixture at a pond's edge where the cart-horses have 

 smashed the three-inch ice. 



THE MIRACLE OF LIFE. 



Indeed, indifference to extremes of heat and cold 

 is one of the strange characteristics of small life. In 

 India, when the crows, with beaks wide agape, seek 



