Peculiar 
flight 
of 
Swal lows 
at 
evening 
Noted, the spring flight call of the Cowbird as 
tolue , lee-dee . It is usually given just as the bird takes 
flight but also when it is fairly on wing and occasionally 
just before it leaves its perch. I think it is peculiar to 
the male. I seldom or nerer hear it in late summer or 
autumn. 
Shortly after sunset as I was standing in front of 
fhe cabin, the wind which had been blowing violently from 
the south-west all the afternoon changed suddenly to east 
and the temperature fell rapidly. A few moments later 
great numbers of Swallows appeared, coming from the north¬ 
east at a considerable height and dropping on set wings under 
the lee side of the hill, afterwards drifting off out of 
sight over the meadows. I must have seen 300 or 400 in the 
course of a few minutes. Their flight was so peculiar that 
* could not identify them by sight. They used their wings 
but little, merely soaring or floating as they drifted 
before the wind. Judging by their calls the majority were 
Barn Swallows but I also heard the notes of Bank and Tree 
Swallows. There were no Swifts among them but I saw four 
Swifts flying in company over the hill earlier in the day. 
In a ditch in Barrett Meadow saw a male Spotted 
Tortoise pursuing a female with amorous intent, under water. 
He clasped her once but lost his hold. She then dove to the 
bottom and buried herself in the mud. The male sought her 
persistently but vainly. Every minute or so he raised his 
head above the surface for air, gulping with wide-open mouth. 
Yet the female remianed submerged at the bottom, during the 15 
minutes I kept watch. 
H 
