EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 75 



weeks ago. On i6th October I saw them 

 go; hundreds of them sat all in a row on 

 the railings. After several false starts, they 

 all simultaneously lifted themselves high up 

 in the air, and, to my surprise, they took a 

 northward course, as if they expected to find 

 summer at the North Pole; but away off in 

 the distance, as far as I could see, they seemed 

 to wheel round, and then they travelled out of 

 sight in a southerly direction. Only a week 

 before this migration I observed a pair of 

 swallows flying in and out of our old barn 

 always with food in their mouths. The way 

 they dodged me was curious enough ; the 

 moment they caught sight of me under a tree 

 looking put for them, instead of going in 

 through the shutter opening they would fly 

 over the barn and wheel round and round, 

 and only slip in when my head was turned 

 away. I thought it was late in the season 

 for these birds to be feeding young ones, 

 just on the eve of their departure. I con- 

 cealed myself in the barn and looked round, 

 but I could see no nests. Presently I heard 

 a little twitter, and away up on a rafter I saw 

 four or five little white breasts sitting all in 



