. The birds of our country. 134 SWALLOW. they may be seen collected together in great numbers on the housetops and copings making preparations for their flight. I was much interested this last autumn when driving from Eastbourne to Polegate in watch- ing these birds, mingled with the House Martins, packed along the telegraph wares literally in tens of thousands. The lines of birds must have extended for quite two miles; and such a chattering and clamour- ing for places, no doubt all feeling very cheery and. SWALLOW, elated at the thoughts of distant Africa! It w^as formerly imagined—how curiou
. The birds of our country. 134 SWALLOW. they may be seen collected together in great numbers on the housetops and copings making preparations for their flight. I was much interested this last autumn when driving from Eastbourne to Polegate in watch- ing these birds, mingled with the House Martins, packed along the telegraph wares literally in tens of thousands. The lines of birds must have extended for quite two miles; and such a chattering and clamour- ing for places, no doubt all feeling very cheery and. SWALLOW, elated at the thoughts of distant Africa! It w^as formerly imagined—how curious the idea sounds to us now!—that Swallows passed the winter in a torpid state, submerging themselves in lakes for this purpose and burying themselves in the mud at the bottom. Of this Dr. Johnson says: " Swallows certainly do sleep all the winter. A number of them conglobulate together by flying round and round, and then all in a heap throw themselves under water and lie in the bed. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Stewart, H. E. London, Digby, Long & Co.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookcollectionbiod, bookdecade1890, bookyear1898
