MIGRATION OF SWALLOWS 



DAYS in early September are here. Blustering 

 wind-storms and rain roughly disturb the lingering- 

 sleep of summer, and make it impossible for us to 

 forget that ' the fall ' is coming, if not upon us ; 

 storms that seem to awaken and arouse the swallows 

 and martins, making them restless and dissatisfied 

 as they gather in great whirling flocks and, flying 

 high into the air, circle in an irregular manner 

 uttering short twittering cries. Their flight is a 

 disturbed and forced effort, a subconscious restless- 

 ness possesses them, they have little or no intention 

 of hawking, and gradually the whole interweaving 

 flock drifts southwards, and though the sun bursts 

 out and summer still loiters as if loath to leave us, 

 in a few days we realise that those which remain are 

 but a poor remnant ; most have gone from the inland 

 districts and are gathering at their selected coast 

 stations, for the great spirit of migration has im- 

 pelled them and borne them away from us. Stream- 

 ISO 



