GENERAL HABITS AND TRAITS OF SWALLOWS 403 



iag random, and not the least marvellous of their feats is the 

 8i)iritecl dash they make, with unerring aim, to euter the 

 narrow window or belfry, and settle, as light as a feather, with 

 joyous twittering, on the nest. 



The feeding of Swallows is almost an inference from the 

 structure of the bill, wings, and feet. These delicate birds have 

 very weak bills, but very capacious mouths, and seem not very 

 dainty in their choice of food. They would soon be starved if 

 forced to gather food on foot — on the wing, no one of the 

 smaller flying insects is safe from that gaping bill, split to the 

 very eyes, propelled with enormous velocity into their ranks, 

 and capable of following after, to close on the most agile and 

 devious bug. Swallows feed on the wing, and this prime point 

 in the economy of these indefatigable insect-hunters is signal- 

 ized in the very names the birds have acquired in various lan- 

 guages. Not only the mode of flight, but its direction, whether 

 high or low, and the entire migrations of the birds, turn upon 

 the prime point of food-supply; and upon this hinges, second 

 arily, the recognized relation between the movements of Swal- 

 lows and the weather and seasons. The numbers of insects 

 that Swallows destroy in the aggregate is simply incalcu- 

 lable — in fact, beyond the reach of our usual notions of numer- 

 ation — and the holocaust includes a large i^roportion of annoy- 

 ing or injurious kinds. The loquacity of the birds, and the 

 unseemly hours they keep, babbling to an unaired world, 

 together with the litter they make about the premises, some- 

 times brings them into disfavor, or even causes them to be 

 summarily dispossessed. The tempting targets they offer 

 when in flight, taxing the skill of the most expert marksman, 

 is another cause of their wanton and cruel destruction. But 

 the most determined and calculating utilitarian should be 

 brought to see the impolicy of killing Swallows, and the sports- 

 man be besought to consider its inhumanity. Needless taking 

 of any life is a crime against nature— we may well pause at this, 

 even if no spark of sentiment should kindle indignation at the 

 thought of cutting short such useful, bright, and joyous life. 

 Things both useful and beautiful are not so common that we 

 can afford to sacrifice them in vain. The rowdy boys and all 

 the crew of tramps and potters of the gun who shoot Swallows 

 for sport may be seriously admonished that these birds are 

 worth more to society than their idle, vicious selves. 



The song of Swallows strikes a single keynote — the theme 



