32 THE AWAKENING YEAR 



The high bluffs of clay and sand, with their happily 

 preserved but threatened fringe of woods, seem to 

 attract the early arrivals among the Swallows and 

 Flycatchers. Perhaps it is there that the lengthening 

 rounds of the slowly mounting sun have greatest 

 force in prompting an early awakening of the 

 ephemeral life on which these sojourners must subsist. 

 Where the absorbent sand dries the surface and the 

 still air grows warm and quivers under the steady glow 

 of sunshine, the insect life awakens from its strange 

 torpor. This response to the new invitation is revealed 

 by the daring swallows pursuing the multitudinous 

 population of the air over the warming fields beside 

 the fringe of woods. These new arrivals are the 

 pioneers of the coming migration. Two Barn 

 Swallows, the most beautiful of the family, display 

 their glossy steel-blue mantles in the sun, their long 

 and deeply forked tails bending gracefully as they 

 chase their invisible prey. Their reddish breasts 

 make a contrast to the white breast of the one Tree 

 Swallow that accompanies them. His blue-green 

 mantle shines like burnished steel with every curve 

 and turn, but even in the distance his shorter and less 

 deeply forked tail distinguishes him from his com- 

 panions. All the birds of day respond to the sunshine, 

 which seems to multiply their numbers, for they 

 remain unseen on their quiet perches when the sun 

 is hidden by discouraging clouds. These swallows. 



