18 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 



might, apparently with as good reason, attribute the 

 invention of paper-making to wasps : but the record- 

 ed history of paper would disprove the theory ; for 

 the manner in which wasps make paper was not 

 known previous to 1719, though Reaumur had en- 

 deavoured to discover it for twenty years. 



We cannot well conceive how it happened that 

 White of Selborne, usually so accurate in his facts, 

 should have committed so many mistakes respecting 

 the bank-swallow. These mistakes are the more 

 unfortunate, as they have been implicitly copied by 

 almost every succeeding writer. " Perseverance," 

 says White, "will accomplish anything; though at 

 first one would be disinclined to believe that this 

 weak bird, with her soft and tender bill and claws, 

 should ever be able to bore the stubborn sandbank 

 without entirely disabling herself; yet with these 

 feeble instruments have I seen a pair of them make 

 great despatch, and could remark how much they 

 had scooped that day by the fresh sand which ran 

 down the bank, and was of a different colour from 

 that which lay loose and bleached in the sun."* 



Whoever, on the contrary, looks at the bill and 

 claws of the bird, cannot fail to be convinced, that, 



Head of the Bank- Swallow. 



so far from being " soft and tender," they are more 

 than commonly hard and sharp, and admirably adapt- 

 ed for digging. The bill, we admit, is small, but its 

 very shortness adds to its strength, as it suddenly ta- 



* Nat. Hist. Selborne, voL i., p. 229, ed. 1825. 



