— 494 — 



circling and twittering over their heads, a most welcome^ 

 herald of recurring heat and sunshine, the first Swallow 

 in spring. 'Tis true, a raw, east wind or profuse warmtL 

 may retard or accelerate the advent of the expected 

 visitor, who comes to set up housekeeping, after winter- 

 ing in Bermuda, Florida or the sunny South. Observers, 

 one and all, look out for the garrulous,, winged messen- 

 ger at that date ; no less than others, the writer of those 

 lines, who, years ago, had prepared an airy birth 1 for- 

 Hirundo's hopeful brood. Seldom in fact, has the ofty 

 structure, the Swallow house (which the village car- 

 penter, pious man, when erecting, decorated with a 

 church steeple), failed to receive each recurring 23rd of 

 April the visit of the yearly-increasing colony of swal- 

 lows, which seems to have been attracted to his high 

 church for several seasons. 



Dr. Elliot Coues sums up thus, the migration, habits 

 and hybernation of the Swallow tribe, ever a mystery 

 since the days of Pontoppidan, Bishop of Upsal : " Being 

 insectivorous birds that take their prey on the wing, 

 swallows necessarily migrate through the cold and tem- 

 perate zones of the Northern hemisphere. Their reces- 

 sion from the North is urged as well by the delicacy of 

 their organization and their susceptibility to cold, as by 

 the periodical failure of the sources of their food-supply. 

 The prowess of their pinion is equal to the emergency 

 of the longest journeys ; no birds, whatsoever, fly better 

 or farther than some of the Swallows do ; and their 

 movements are pre-eminent in the qualities of ease, of 

 speed, and of regularity. These facts are matters of" 

 common knowledge ; the comings of Swallows have 

 passed into proverb, and their leave-takings been 

 rehearsed in folk-lore among the signs of the waning 

 times. Swallows have long been held for weather- 

 prophets ; and with reason enough in the quick res- 

 ponse of their organization to the influence of the atmos- 

 pheric changes. Swallows have figured in augury : 

 their appearance has been noted among auspicia ; and 



