NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 81 



is perhaps as striking a chapter of metamorphoses as 

 Greek or Roman ever invented. Moschus makes the 

 two plaintive sisters prominent in their lamentations, 

 when 



All the birds in the air fell to sighing and sobbing 



on the death of Bion.* Nor are some of the stories told 

 of the bird, evidently in good faith, unamusing, — 



In the mouth of Nilus, near Heraclea, in Mgypt, there is a 

 mighty banke or causey raised only of a continuall ranke and course 

 of swallows' nests, piled one upon and by another thicke, for the 

 length almost of half a quarter of a mile ; which is so firme and 

 strong, that being opposed against the inundations of Nilus, it is 

 able to breake the force of that river when it swelleth, and is it selfe 

 inexpugnable : a piece of work that no man is able to tm^ne his 

 hand unto. In the same iEg}-j)t, neere unto the to\^Tae Coptos, 

 there is an island consecrated unto the goddesse Isis, which every 

 yere these swallows do rampier and fortifie, for feare lest the same 

 Nilus should eat the banks thereof, and break over into it. In the 

 beginning of the spring, for three nights together, they bring to 

 the cape of that Island straw, chaffe, and such-like stufFe, to 

 strengthen the front thereof: and for the time, they ply their 

 businesse so hard, that for certaine it is kno\^Tie, many of them 

 have died wdth taking such paines and moiling about this w^orke. 

 And verily every yeare they go as daily to this taske againe, as the 

 spring is sm'e to come about ; and the} faile not, no more than 

 souldiers that by vntue of their militarie oath and obligation go 

 forth to service and warfare. f 



Talk of the dykes of Holland after this ! 



Such services to the Egyptians, and to Isis in parti- 

 cular, deserved a reward, and accordingly Pliny and 

 ^lian mil tell you that if the eyes of a swallow are 

 taken out, new ones will come, and the bird see as well 

 as ever. This power of reproduction undoubtedly exists 

 in some of the reptiles, the newt for instance, but not in 

 the higher warm-blooded animals. Aristotle, however, 

 declares, that if the eyes of the swallow's nestlings are 



'ETTLTacpios Btoopos. t Holland's Pliny. 



E3 



