Alien Swallows As the last of our summer visitors left
and the swallows, the most visible of them, were no more seen, I received a letter from a ship in the China seas, some 200 miles off Borneo. It tells incidentally of the number of swallows that arrive on board, utterly tired out ; and much too tired to be in the least frightened of man. , They are carefully fed by the sailors, but some, die of sheer weariness, and perhaps hunger. The rest remain for two or three days and then fly on their way quite refreshed. How very widely spread is the swallow's tribe and wherever they are, found they maintain their migratory instinct and ..cover immense distances. Some of our own birds in England cover, well over 8,000 miles—from the Cape to Scotland in one notable record. The habit presumably was developed for the sake of preserving the species ; but how wasteful of life it often is, as recent experi- ence along the Alps bears witness.
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