| Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire; | |
| In clusters clung, beneath the mould'ring bank, | |
| And where, unpierc'd by frost, the cavern sweats. | |
| Or rather into warmer climes convey'd | |
| With other kindred birds of season, | |
| There they twitter cheerful.” |
He seems rather to have inclined himself to the better opinion.[1]
In ancient times the swallows were very naturally included among other migratory birds; there is said to be an old Greek ode in which the return of the swallow is mentioned. The Prophet Jeremiah has an allusion to the wandering of the swallow, which he includes among other migratory birds: “Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.”— Jer., viii. 7. Indeed, it is but just to the common sense of man to say that the obvious fact of the migration of those swift-winged birds seems only to have been doubted during a century or so; and among the achievements of our own age may be numbered that of a return to the simple truth on this point of ornithology. We hear nothing now-a-days of the mud or cave theories.
Thursday, 24th.—Brilliant day. Passed the afternoon on the lake. The views were very beautiful. Downy seeds of various kinds, thistle, dandelion, &c., &c., were thickly strewed over the bosom of the lake; we had never before observed such numbers of them lying on the water.
Saw a crane of the largest size flying over the lake, a mile or
- ↑ It is said that Linnæus firmly believed that the swallows went under water during the winter; and even M. Cuvier declared that the bank swallows had this habit. At present the idea is quite abandoned for want of proof.
