Page:Papers presented to the Worlds Congress on Ornithology.djvu/202

 a single great cloud. Wherever we look the swarms are fast approaching; the grand sight of the confluence of two multitudes of birds just witnessed repeats itself on all sides. Quicker, dear reader, than I am able to express to you in words, most of these living clouds, at times overshot with a gleam of reddish sheen, the reflection of some real clouds still beaming in crimson on the far western horizon, have united in ten large swarms—no, in eight only; and look, they are still uniting! Our cries cease; we remain silent for a few moments, and then a loud cheer rings through the air. The endless swarms of Swallows have united into a single mighty cloud. Who could count them? The air is filled with them and with the noise they make with wings and voices. The swarm of more than hundreds of thousands moves up and down, to and fro, lowering itself quickly down to the reeds and rising just as swiftly high up into the air; it moves like a living tidal wave and sounds like the rushing of mighty winds. And the voice of those countless feathered singers expresses their pleasure at having met again at the place of their night’s rest, which they have visited for weeks already and to which they will nightly resort for four months longer before departing for the far north.

The faded crimson on the western sky has disappeared. The evenings on these high African plateaus are very short. The night is fast approaching. Still the living, dark and noisy billow rolls up and down, a little less voluminous than before, as thousands have already joined the whistling Finches among the reeds. Suddenly the wave subsides, and turns sharply toward the grassy plain, as if it would leave the swamp for good; but just as suddenly it returns in a semicircle and striking the reeds sinks among them, not to rise again. The voices still keep on; no wonder that disputes arise among the Swallows themselves and also with the Finches regarding about three inches of space on the same reed stem. This noise keeps on for about a quarter of an hour, when it ceases. At last the weary birds have found a place