. Nature in downland. turesque red-tUed roofs ofthe houses were as attractive to the swallows as thewalls under the eaves to the martins. The birds werein hundreds. Sitting at a front window, while waitingfor my breakfast, the air seemed full of swallowswhirling about like house-flies in a room, and of thesound of their voices. Presently another sound washeard, something between a rumbling and a fluttering,and down the chimney into the room flew or tumbleda swallow. I closed the window and tried to catch itto put it out, but the poor bird flew wildly about theroom and I could not get near it.
. Nature in downland. turesque red-tUed roofs ofthe houses were as attractive to the swallows as thewalls under the eaves to the martins. The birds werein hundreds. Sitting at a front window, while waitingfor my breakfast, the air seemed full of swallowswhirling about like house-flies in a room, and of thesound of their voices. Presently another sound washeard, something between a rumbling and a fluttering,and down the chimney into the room flew or tumbleda swallow. I closed the window and tried to catch itto put it out, but the poor bird flew wildly about theroom and I could not get near it. Now I noticed thatalthough the two well-cleaned windows at the frontwere in appearance two patches of shining light andopen ways to hberty, the bird in all his wild flightsabout the large dim room never touched any other bird would have instantly dashedhimself against the glass. Tired of the vain chase,I finally put up one sash of a window and sat down:at once the captive, doubtless feeling a way of escape. Hpat^ j DiTCHLiNG Church SWALLOWS AND CHURCHES 187 in the more elastic air coming to it from that direction,flew straight from the other side of the room andpassed out. Its action appeared to show that theswallow, in spite of its feathery covering, has an almostbat-like sensitiveness to enable it in unusual circum-stances to avoid striking against any object in itsflight. It has been observed that bats flying roundin a dimly-lighted room were not deceived by the lightcoming through a pane of glass; but, on the otherhand, they would flutter before a keyhole or any othersmall aperture through which a current of out-doorair could come. This exquisite sensitiveness of thebats wing, which is nerve as well as organ of flight,is a corrective of vision, which is liable in all creaturesto deception. That the swallow, too, should be foundpossessed of this additional sense, came to me as asurprise. At Ditchling the extraordinary abundance of swallowand swift life interested
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