OTHER NEIGHBORS IN THE TREES. 227 



5. Of this latter opinion was White, of Selborne, who 

 alludes to it again and again, and Sir Thomas Forster wrote 

 a '• Monograph of British Swallows," apparently with no 

 other object than to present the arguments for and against 

 the theory of their annual submersion and torpidity. One 

 of the difficulties which the submersionists put in the way 

 of the migrationists was the frequent accidental and iso- 

 lated appearance of the swallow before its usual time — a fact 

 that has, in nearly every language, given rise to the proverb, 

 "One swallow does not make a summer." The story is 

 well known of a thin brass plate having been fixed on a 

 swallow with this inscription : " Prithee, swallow, whither 

 goest thou in winter ?" The bird returned next spring 

 with the answer subjoined : " To Anthony, of Athens. 

 Why dost thou incuure ? " 



6. Out of this controversy, evidence of their sudden 

 autumnal adjournment to Africa accumulated in England. 

 Wilson, in this country, showed that their advance could 

 be traced in the spring from New Orleans to Lake Superior 

 and back again, and their regular migration soon came to 

 be acknowledged. Then attention was turned to the sea- 

 son, manner, and limits of their migrations, and it was 

 found that, taking advantage of favorable winds, immense 

 flocks of swallows — and many other birds of passage as well 

 — flying very high, passed each fall from the coast of Eng- 

 land to the coast of Africa, and from Continental Europe 

 across the Mediterranean direct, whence they spread south- 

 ward almost to the Cape of Good Hope. ~No sooner had 

 the spring fairly opened than they were suddenly back 

 again, very much exhausted at first with their long-sus- 

 tained effort, but speedily recuperated and "diligent in 

 business." Our own migrants winter in Central America 

 and the West Indies, or still farther south. 



7. Their flight is rapid, but unsteady, " with odd jerks 

 and vacillations not unlike the motions of a butterfly," as 



