DO SWALLOWS HIBERNATE* 167 



the weak, the blind, and the unbtiried dead of that avian 

 city still remained ; and what a mournful spectacle they 

 offered ! painfully so in themselves, and the more impres- 

 sive when the thoughtless, glittering throng of a few 

 days past was vividly recalled. 



Cheered for the time by the mellow sunlight that 

 beamed upon them, the aged, half -helpless swallows, whose 

 wings still responded to the will languidly, chased the few 

 remaining insects flitting over the weedy waters. Others, 

 venturing less far, caught, with what skill they could com- 

 mand, the chilled and drooping flies that sought refuge 

 from the cold winds in these safe, snug harbors in the 

 cliff. Indeed, this shelter-seeking flight of insect-life, that 

 now teems about these deserted nests of the departed 

 swallows, proves a veritable godsend to those poor birds 

 that, from whatsoever cause, are fated to remain, if it be 

 a blessing to prolong a joyless existence during a few brief 

 weeks in autumn. But the importance of this sad phase 

 of swallow-life as bearing upon our subject remains to be 

 stated. Notwithstanding their weakness, the desire or 

 instinct to migrate still remains, and when pressed more 

 than usual by sudden accession of cold, or by scarcity of 

 food, numbers of those that remain will collect as of yore, 

 on the rushes and reeds about the water, and often com- 

 mence their protracted flight toward their winter haunts. 

 Many straggling swallows doubtless wander miles before 

 finally succumbing to the weakness of age, though they 

 never wander far from water, but migrate in their accus- 

 tomed course, which is always coastwise, down a river 

 valley. When their course is finished they are found 

 in the track of the hardy multitude that have passed 

 successfully onward. Here, yielding to the severity of 

 the increasing cold, they find watery graves beneath the 

 nodding plumes of the russet grasses over which, in days 



