IN BELIEFS AND OMENS 103 



many generations of men, and even yet 

 a similar notion may be found among the 

 ignorant peoples of northern Europe. As 

 every fall they see the swallows gather in 

 large flocks upon the margins of lakes and 

 ponds, and then in the dead of night they 

 disappear, they say the birds have gone down 

 to the bottom of the water to remain there 

 under the ice until the end of bad weather. 

 This absurd belief has not been confined 

 to the ignorant, for listen to the learned 

 Izaak Walton, in his immortal discourse 

 upon the gentle art of angling: — 



"It is well known that swallows and bats 

 and wagtails, which are called half-year birds, 

 are not seen to fly in England for six 

 months in the year, but about Michaelmas 

 leave us for a better climate; yet some of 

 them that have been left behind their fellows, 

 have been found many thousands at a time 

 in hollow trees, or clay caves, where they 

 have been observed to live and sleep out the 

 whole winter without meat." 



