Swallows flying low.

May 16. 

P. M. — To Hill for pines. 

The meadows are now mostly bare, the grass showing itself above the water that is left, and an unusual number of swallows are flying low over it. 

A yellow lily out, and, on the hill, a red cedar, maybe a day.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 16, 1857

[A]n unusual number of swallows are flying low over it. See  April 29, 1854 (" The barn swallows are very numerous, flying low over the water in the rain.”);  April 30, 1855 ("circling about and flying . . .about six inches above the water, — it was cloudy and almost raining”); April 30, 1856 ("I was surprised by the great number of swallows—white-bellied and barn swallows and perhaps republican — flying round and round, or skimming very low over the meadow. . .There were a thousand or more of swallows, and I think that they had recently arrived together on their migration.");  May 11, 1856 ("There are many swallows circling low over the river behind Monroe’s, — bank swallows, barn, republican, chimney, and white-bellied. These are all circling together a foot or two over the water, passing within ten or twelve feet of me in my boat.");  May 20, 1858 (“Hundreds of swallows are now skimming close over the river, at its broadest part, where it is shallow and runs the swiftest, just below the Island”); July 21, 1860 ("Now, after the rain, the sun coming forth brightly, the swallows in numbers are skimming low over the river just below the junction.”)