MIGRATION. 255 



spot in many respects seems to be well calculated for their 

 winter residence, for, in many parts, it is as steep as the roof 

 of any house, and therefore secure from the annoyances of 

 water ; and it is, moreover, clothed with beechen shrubs, which, 

 being- stunted and bitten by sheep, make the thickest covert 

 imaginable, and are so entangled as to be impervious to the 

 smallest spaniel ; besides, it is the nature of underwood beech 

 never to cast its leaf all the winter, so that, with the leaves on 

 the ground and those on the twigs, no shelter can be more 

 complete. I watched them on to the thirteenth and fourteenth 

 of October, and found their evening retreat was exact and 

 uniform ; but after this they made no regular appearance. Now 

 and then a straggler was seen ; and, on the twenty-second of 

 October, I observed two, in the morning, over the village, and 

 with them my remarks for the season ended. 



From all these circumstances put together, it is more than 

 probable that this lingering flight, at so late a season of the 

 year, never departed from the island. Had they indulged 

 me that autumn with a November visit, as I much desired, I 

 presume that, with proper assistants, I should have settled the 

 matter past all doubt ; but though the third of November was 



" December 20. The weather continues much the same. Foggy and 

 drizzly mist. Thermometer averaging sixty-three degrees. 



" January 14. Thermometer forty- two degrees. Weather coutinuos 

 the same. My little favourites constantly in view. 



" January 28. Thermometer at forty degrees. Having .seen the 

 hirundo viridis continually, and the hirundo purpurea, or purple marten, 

 beginning to appear, I discontinued my observations. 



" During the whole winter, many of them retired to the holes about the 

 houses, but the greater number resorted to the lakes, and spent the night 

 among the branches of myrica cerifera, the drier, as it is termed 

 by the French settlers. At sunset they began to flock together, calling 

 to each other for that purpose, and, in a short time, presented the appear- 

 ance of clouds moving towards the lakes, or the mouth of the Mississippi, 

 as the weather and wind suited. Their aerial evolutions, before they 

 alight, are truly beautiful. They appear at first as if reconnoitering the 

 place, when, suddenly throwing themselves into a vortex of apparent 

 confusion, they descend spirally with astonishing quickness, and very 

 much resemble a trombe, or water spout. When within a few feet of the 

 driers, they disperse in all directions, and settle in a few moments. 

 Their twittering, and the motions of their wings, are, however, heard 

 during the whole night. As soon as the day begins to dawn, they rise, 

 flying low over the lakes, almost touching the water for some time, and 

 then rising, gradually move off in search of food, separating- in different 

 directions. The hunters who resort to these places destroy great numbers 

 of them, by knocking them down with light paddles, used in propelling 

 their canoes." ED. 



tueu cairn 



