BANK-MARTIN 4t 
my horse at one time ; but from the rapidity of their 
motions it is impossible to count them. I have 
frequently noticed individuals of the four most 
common species following me together; but after 
sunset, and when the other species have long forsaken 
the open grassy plain for the shelter of trees and 
houses, the diminutive Bank-Martin continues to 
keep the traveller company. At such a time, as they 
glide about in the dusk of evening, conversing 
together in low tremulous tones, they have a pecu- 
liarly sorrowful appearance, seeming like homeless 
little wanderers over the great level plains. 
When the season of migration approaches they 
begin to congregate in parties not very large, though 
sometimes as many as one or two hundred individuals 
are seen together ; these companies spend much of 
their time perched close together on weeds, low trees, 
fences, or other slightly elevated situations, and pay 
little heed to a person approaching, but seem pre- 
occupied or preyed upon by some trouble that has no 
visible cause. 
The time immediately preceding the departure of 
the Martins is indeed a season of very deep interest 
to the observer of nature. The birds in many cases 
seem to forget the attachment of the sexes and their 
songs and aerial recreations; they already begin to 
feel the premonitions of that marvellous instinct that 
urges them hence: not yet an irresistible impulse, 
it is a vague sense of disquiet ; but its influence is 
manifest in their language and gestures, their wild 
manner of flight, and their listless intervals. 
