from the north, the forest 

 rangers see them every year. 

 They fly a little below the tree 

 tops, a thin and fluttering band 

 about fifty feet wide. Their 

 progress is steady and unwaver- 

 ing and they keep to an unerr- 

 ing course, evidently with a 

 fixed destination in view. They 

 never loiter, or turn aside to 

 rest, and not one is seen in the 

 surrounding woods off their 

 line of flight; there is some- 

 thing almost pathetic in the 

 sight, unusual and charming 

 though it is they are so small, 

 so weak, so defenceless, as they 

 traverse the deep still forest, 

 one cannot but wonder what in- 

 stinct it is that impels them to 

 travel on such long, long jour- 



30 



