2/0 Slimmer Studies of Birds and Books chap. 



But the travelling of Swallows and Martins is 

 what chiefly attracts me to this region. On 20th 

 September 1887, while staying at Lulworth, half- 

 way between Weymouth and Swanage, I discovered 

 that every Swallow and Martin which I saw was 

 steadily travelling eastwards. They travelled in 

 parties of from fifty to two hundred, just as I had 

 seen them in the Alps, and as they are described in 

 the " Migration Eeports." I could trace these parties 

 for a long distance with my glass, as I stood on a 

 long and narrow ridge of down some five hundred 

 feet above the sea ; their general direction was 

 always due east, though they seemed to follow pretty 

 closely the long line of the down, which curves 

 somewhat inland eastwards from Lulworth. The 

 whole day they continued to pass, not in a continuous 

 stream, but in these great packs, which at one moment 

 were over my head and all around me, and in two or 

 three minutes had quietly slipped on full half a mile 

 towards the east. They did not, of course, fly 

 straight ahead in a direct route ; they seemed to be 

 ever dallying and circling round, or sweeping back- 

 wards ; yet you only had to keep a vigilant eye on 

 them to discover that they were all the time moving 

 onwards, and travelling at a rate which I guessed to 

 be not much less than ten miles an hour. 



On that day the wind was easterly, and therefore 

 dead against them ; but it was a gentle breeze, and 



