Reluctant Emigrants
An authority on bird migration, who has kept a diary for very many years, tells me that the swifts were flying over his Surrey home on August 19th, the latest date in his records. My experience corroborates his in this regard ; but what has most struck me has been the arrival, and not the departure, of some of the migrants. It would seem that migrants from the North and West, including especially swallows and warblers, have reconsidered their decision to leave. The air is full of insects, and the temperature at least endurable. Their state of mind has been expressed by song. Warblers were singing little snatches of song in my garden on August 25th; and the number of swallows hawking flies over the lawn had increased four or five times, nor did they show any tendency to gather in flocks preparatory to migration overseas.
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