THE SWALLOWS. 93 



swallow take four, in less than a quarter of a 

 minute, that were descending to the water. 



PoiET. — I delight in this living landscape ! 

 The swallow is one of my favourite birds, 

 and a rival of the nightingale ; for he cheers 

 my sense of seeing as much as the other 

 does my sense of hearing. He is the glad 

 prophet of the year — the harbinger of the 

 best season : he lives a life of enjoyment 

 amongst the loveliest forms of nature : winter 

 is unknown to him ; and he leaves the green 

 meadows of England in autumn, for the myrtle 

 and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms 

 of Africa:— he has always objects of pursuit, 

 and his success is secure. Even the beings 

 selected for his prey are poetical, beautiful, 

 and transient. The ephemerae are saved by 

 his means from a slow and lingering death in 

 the evening, and killed in a moment, when 

 they have known nothing of life but pleasure. 

 He is the constant destroyer of insects, — 

 the friend of man ; and, with the stork and the 

 ibis, may be regarded as a sacred bird. His 

 instinct, which gives him his appointed sea- 



