SWALLOW. 141 
in a similar manner. So regular were they in series, and so 
vertically disposed, as at once to remind me of a rope-ladder 
up the mast of a ship; really not too extravagant a simile.’ 
‘Who has not watched the Swallow on the wing,’ says 
Linneus Martin, who has not marked its rapid flight; now 
smoothly skimming along, now executing sudden turns and 
intricate evolutions with astonishing celerity? If the weather 
be warm, it dips in the water as it passes along, and emerges, 
shaking the spray from its burnished plumage, uninterrupted 
in its career.’ The Swallow is, like all its compeers, indefatigable 
in its flight, and is not often seen to alight. It does, however, 
occasionally settle on the ridge of a roof, or even sometimes on 
the branch of a tree, or some such elevated spot, from whence 
you may see it suddenly drop again into the ambient air 
and renew its course, to chase its prey, or to join with some 
sportive companion in all the eccentric meanderings of the 
labyrinth which it ever and anon follows the thread of. ‘These 
birds, says Meyer, ‘delight the eye by their ever-glancing 
flight, passing and repassing us with noiseless wing; sometimes 
dipping their glossy wings into the stream, or sweeping 
an insect from its surface; then shooting past us quicker than 
the eye can follow, they turn and wheel, as if delighting to 
evade our eager sight.’ 
» In perching, the Swallow occasionally rests on the ground 
by choice, roads being thus not unfrequently resorted to, 
and sometimes the sea-beach; and objects are, though but 
rarely, picked up. When they alight on trees, they for the 
most part prefer to alight on withered and dry branches, in 
preference to flourishing and leafy ones. The young birds do 
not return to the nest after they have become able to provide 
for themselves, and appear then to roost in trees. Swallows 
may often be noticed in a row, or perfect line, on the ground: 
after hawking for flies, the whole troop will thus settle on 
the ground, as if to rest themselves:—but why in straight 
rank? They may also often be seen coursing over the sea, 
as zealously and regularly as over the land. They fly very 
late in the evening—until nine o’clock, or after; sometimes 
till they can be on longer distinguished. During eclipses of 
the sun they have been observed, in some instances, to disappear, 
and in some to cease to sing, and retire, as if to roost; 
while in others, ‘though the Rooks and Sparrows had gone 
to bed, thinking it was night, the Swallows continued flying 
about as usual.’ 
