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a scarcer and smaller bird, being less than five inches in total 

 length. I have not seen the latter for some years, but as a boy 

 I remember a colony of them building in the upright sandbanks 

 in Pickup Delph, but I believe for one summer only. I climbed 

 up or down, I forget which, to the only one of their nests that 

 was assailable, and on putting my arm into the hole, I remember 

 the shock it gave me on touching the dead bodies of the young 

 ones, cold and clammy. Possibly the situation was damp and 

 did not suit them, hence their departure. The swallow, also, 

 with its straight elongated tail feathers and pretty chestnut head 

 and throat, used, I believe, to be found in this neighbourhood, 

 but I have not observed it during the last seven years. I 

 remember many years ago some birds of the swallow tribe used 

 to build every summer under the eaves of the Bull Inn and the 

 Old Red Lion, and also of several houses in Westgate, but I 

 cannot say whether they were swallows, house-martins, or swifts. 

 The swift is the largest of the swallow tribe, but he is not nearly 

 so handsome as his relatives ; his length is about seven inches, 

 but his wings when closed are one inch longer than his tail ; 

 this circumstance renders the swift unable to rise from the 

 ground, if, as I have occasionally seen him, he happens to alight 

 in a hollow place, a dusty cart rut for instance, for the purpose 

 of smothering a parasite with which he is much infested. I 

 have picked up several in this plight, and have always found 

 this little red parasite on the lower parts of their bodies. 



The wild carrot has several allies, very similar to itself, as the 

 water dropwort, the parsnip or foolsparsley, the hemlock, &c., 

 all, I believe, poisonous to man, but very acceptable to butterflies. 

 They are great favourites with the Vanessidae, i.e., with the large 

 and gorgeous coloured tribe of butterflies, and also with a pretty 

 little fly called the orange tip. This latter, I beheve, frequents 

 the plant for protection as well as for food ; the top side of its 

 wings are white, and the male has large patches of orange colour 

 at the tips, rendering it very conspicuous ; but the undersides of 

 both male and female are white, mottled with green. When the 

 insect alights on the flower-head of an umbelliferous plant it 

 raises its wings erect and exposes the underside only; these 

 bear such a close resemblance to the flowers on which it is feed- 

 ing that a novice cannot see the insect even when it is pointed 

 out to him. This law of imitation is very strong in butterflies, 

 the brightly- coloured peacock butterfly, for instance, when at 

 rest will often seem to disappear mysteriously by simply closing 

 its wings over its back and showing the underside only, which, 

 looking like brown decayed leaves, become blended with the 

 surrounding fohage. The angular wings of the yellow brimstone, 

 also, are veined and coloured on the underside exactly hke a 



