i So NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNR. 



LETTER XIX. 



SELBORNE, Feb. itfh, 1774. 



DEAR SIR, I received your favour of the 8th, and am pleased 

 to find that you read my little history of the swallow with your 

 usual candour : nor was I the less pleased to find that you made 

 objections where you saw reason. 



As to the quotations, it is difficult to say precisely which species 

 of hirundo Virgil might intend in the lines in question, since the 

 ancients did not attend to specific differences like modern natural- 

 ists : yet somewhat may be gathered, enough to incline me to 

 suppose that in the two passages quoted the poet had his eye on 

 the swallow. 



In the first place the epithet garrula suits the swallow well, 

 who is a great songster, and not the martin, which is rather a 

 mute bird ; and when it sings is so inward as scarce to be heard. 

 Besides, \itignum in that place signifies a rafter rather than a beam, 

 as it seems to me to do, then I think it must be the swallow that is 

 alluded to, and not the martin, since the former does frequently 

 build within the roof against the rafters ; while the latter always, 

 as far as I have been able to observe, builds without the roof 

 against eaves and cornices. 



As to the simile, too much stress must not be laid on it ; yet 

 the epithet nigra speaks plainly in favour of the swallow, whose 

 back and wings are very black ; while the rump of the martin is 

 milk-white, its back and wings blue, and all its under part white 

 as snow. Nor can the clumsy motions (comparatively clumsy) 

 of the martin well represent the sudden and artful evolutions and 

 quick turns which Juturna gave to her brother's chariot, so as to 

 elude the eager pursuit of the enraged yEneas. The verb sonat 

 also seems to imply a bird that is somewhat loquacious.* 



* " Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis sedes 

 Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, 

 Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus escas : 



