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, 
