Lake Umbagog.
1896
Aug. 11
(No 5)
  chirping and twittering - for a few minutes there as if struck
by a panic and with loud and startling cries a few of the
old birds (easily recognized as such by their notes) take wing
and are closely followed by the whole swarm so that the
tree or roof is cleared practically in an instant and so
completely that never a bird remains. Sometimes they sweep
down nearly to the ground at first, at others they go off
on nearly a level plane but however the start is made each
bird seems to exert itself to the utmost & to fly at top speed for the first
hundred yards or so. Then they all rise in a spiral
course until they have attained an elevation varying from
two or three hundred [delete]feet[/delete] to one thousand feet when they
circle a few times and then begin to scatter and
return to the barn roof or poplar some going directly
back, others flying about awhile over the field or Lake
before realighting. Late in the afternoon this evolution
is performed on the average over every fifteen or twenty
minutes.
[Concourse of
Swallows.[/margin]
  The start from the tree is so very like that common to
most of the smaller gregarious birds when they are alarmed
by some real or imaginary danger that at first I supposed
it to be due to [delete]some[/delete] sudden panic but after watching it
closely a few times and considering it in connection with
the subsequent ascent and circling high over the Lake I
came to the conclusion that it was really a false start
on migration or in other words that the older Swallows
were preparing their young to begin the inevitable journey
southward.
  I watched them for nearly two hours last evening partly
in the hope that I might see them actually depart &
partly to ascertain, if possible, where they spent the night