4^ SWALLOW. 



HIRUNDO RUSTICA— Swallow. 



The Swallow, oft, beneath my thatch 

 Shall twitter from her clay built nest." 



Rogers. 



The Swallow for a moment seen, 

 Skims in haste the village green. 



Warton. 



Swallow ! Swallow ! hither wing, 

 Dearest playmate of the Spring. 



Bennett. 



Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis sedes 

 Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, 

 Pabula parva legens, n^lisque loquacibus escas ; 

 Et nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum 

 Stagna sonat. 



YmG—jEnxii., Jflo. 



As the black Swallow near the palace plies ; 

 O'er empty courts, and under arches flies ; 

 Now hawks aloft, now skims along the flood, 

 To furnish her loquacious nests with food. 



Dryden. 



Swift through the air, her rounds the Swallow takes. 

 Or sportive skims the level of the lakes. 



Browne— Pas^om?. 



" The Swallow," says Sir Humphry Davy in Salmoiiia^ 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 among the lordliest forms of 

 nature ; winter is unknown to him, and in the autumn he leaves 

 the green meadows of England, for the myrtle and orange groves 

 of Italy, and for the palms of Africa." 



But he arrives earlier in the South of Europe than he does 

 here ; which made the old Greek proverb to run, " One Swallow 

 does not make a sprin^^"" instead of " summer," as we have it. 



The Swallow, (privileg'd, above the rest 

 Of all the birds as man's familiar guest,) 

 Pursues the sun in Summer brisk and bold. 

 But wisely shuns the persecuting cold. 

 ***** -x- 



Such auguries of winter thence she drew, 

 Which by instinct or prophecy she knew ; 

 When prudence warn'd her to remove betimes, 

 And seek a better heaven and warmer climes. 



