SWALLOWS. 181 



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 ques- 

 tion, since the ancients did not attend to specific differences, 

 like modern naturalists; 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, if tignum 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 pur- 

 suit of the enraged ^Eneas. The verb so nat also seems to 

 imply a bird that is somewhat loquacious.f 



* So Anacreon 



" Silly swallow ! prating thing." ED. 



*(* " Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis aedes 

 Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, 

 Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus eseas : 

 Et nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum 

 Stagna sonat." 



"As the dark swallow in a splendid hall, 

 With gloomy pinions flits along each wall, 

 Of scattered crumbs and humble food in quest 

 To still the clamour of the craving nest; 

 Now through the porch her agile figure bounds, 

 Now by the lake her noisy note resounds." 



