THE SWALLOW. 273 



suns are calling into life. The home of the Swallow is 

 all the habitable earth ; it knows nothing of winter or 

 winter's cold ; its whole life is a continued festivity, and its 

 song an eternal hymn in praise of summer and liberty." 

 In remote ages the Swallow was considered to be endowed 

 with supernatural intelligence ; it refused to build its nest 

 in a certain town because it was polluted with crime ; in 

 another, because it had been fre(juently burnt down ; it 

 foretold tempests ; and, above all, it was noted for having 

 taught men the healing jjroperties of a certain herb,* by 

 employing it to give sight to its young. Not only was it 

 thus skilled in the healing art, but was in itself a medi- 

 cine of no ordinary virtue. Even in the time of our 

 countryman Ray, not two hundred years ago, its efficacy 

 in various complaints was seriously believed : the whole 

 body burnt, was considered a specific for weak eyes, quiaisy, 

 and inflamed uvula ; the heart was prescribed in epilepsy 

 and in quartan ague, it was good also for strengthening 

 the memory ; the blood was good for the eyes, especially 

 if drawn from under the right wing ; a little stone some- 

 times found in the stomach of young birds, called cheli- 

 donius, tied to the arm, or hung around the neck, was a 

 remedy against children's fits. This was to be searched 

 for before or at the August full moon, in the eldest of a 

 brood. Even the nest had its virtues, being, if applied 

 externally, good for quinsy, redness of the eyes, and the 

 bite of a viper. 



A century later "good old White," as Mr. Bell hap- 

 pily calls him, published his account of the Swallow, 

 to which the reader is referred as an admirable model 

 of bird-biography, not only for the age, but as an 

 authentic history full of fresh interest to the reader in all 

 ages. The only point on which White had doubts was 

 whether Swallows all migrate, or whether some of the 



* Chelidonium : Celandine or Swallow-wort, from xf^'^wi/, "a 

 Swnlliiw." 



