The Marsh Is a Hotel 23 



the hope that, regardless of the rigors of the past winter, 

 spring would not be long delayed. Other birds would follow 

 in rapidly increasing numbers. But the influx of other spring 

 migrants was not immediate. The old saying that it takes 

 more than one swallow to make a summer still holds good, 

 for often many days elapsed before the next birds appeared. 

 There is an old belief that the swallows and other spring 

 migrants send out scouts to test conditions for the main body, 

 but it has never been substantiated. However, the first birds 

 often had a difficult time of it for the swallows of this area 

 are insect-eaters and take their food on the wing. Lack of 

 food frequently spells disaster for the aerial hunters. Some- 

 times we have had spells of bad spring weather for days at a 

 time when the low thermometer indicated that few insects 

 could be flying. Such weather always made me wonder how 

 the swallows could successfully withstand such conditions, 

 even though it has been reliably stated that tree swallows 

 will take berries if insect food is not available. I have seen 

 them hunting for insects even when sleet was falling, but I 

 have never seen them— and my friends say the same— either 

 eating berries or hovering about berry bushes as if preparing 

 to feed. Perhaps in our district the weather is not cold enough 

 to prevent the swallows from finding enough insects to pro- 

 long life. But prolonged storms certainly cause some fatali- 

 ties. 



These conditions brought few birds to the marsh but in 

 the south many millions had become restless and excitable 

 and filled with the same urge that sent the first swallows 

 north. Every day thousands left their winter areas and began 

 their journeys, some to go only a short distance, others, hun- 

 dreds of miles, perhaps bound for places as far north as the 

 shores of Alaska. They traveled routes chosen by their spe- 

 cies, moving rapidly or slowly as is the custom of their 

 particular kind, and flying singly or in flocks of various sizes. 



