THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW.* 



The swallow is a general favourite with all classes of the conununity. Its ingeniously 

 constructed nest, its summer stay, its singularly rapid flight, and its strange departure 

 durinn- the winter month?, have given it an interest in the eyes of many which is not 

 felt fo" others of our feathered friends. Gilbert White tells us, that when he saw the 

 swallows and martins clustering on the chimneys and thatch of the neighbouring 

 cottages, he felt a peculiar regard for them, especially when they manifested those strong 

 impulses of instinct towards migration which had been implanted in them by the 



Creator. 



"The swallow," says Sir IT. Davy, in his " Salmonia," "is one of my favourite birds, 

 and a rival of the nightingale; for he glads my sense of seeing as much as any other 

 does my sense of hearing. He is the joyous prophet of the year — the harbinger of the 

 best season ; he lives a life of enjoyment among (he 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 aic poetical, 

 beautiful and transient. The ephemera arc saved by his means from a slow and 

 lingering death in the evening, and killed in a moment, when they had knoAvn 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. The instinct which gives 



* llimiidu llubtica. — Lii)u. 



