High - fliers .1 Some have wondered what the swifts arc up
to, cutting their wild patterns of flight at an inordinate height ; and they have stayed with us later than usual in the enjoyment of this pastime. The presumption is that they are above the level frequented by flies of any sort. The truth seems to be that in spite of the exceptional altitude they are nevertheless hawking flies. Thundery weather is almost always associated with updraughts of air rising to cloud heights. Now flies are " parasites of the air," to use a striking phrase of Bernard Acworth's in his Butterfly Miracles and Mysteries ; and there is a good deal of recent evidence to show that many insects, including moths, are carried to much greater heights than was once supposed. It is, of course, one of the oldest beliefs of the weather prophet—and a true one—that the higher the swallows fly the finer the weather.
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