164 NATURAL HISTORY 



October; though some few stragglers may appear on at times 

 till the first week in November. 



Some few pairs haunt the new and open streets of London 

 next the fields, but do not enter, like the house-martin, the 

 close and crowded parts of the city. 



Both male and female are distinguished from their con- 

 geners by the length and forkedness of their tails. They are 

 undoubtedly the most nimble of all the species: and when the 

 male pursues the female in amorous chase, they then go 

 beyond their usual speed, and exert a rapidity almost too 

 quick for the eye to follow. 



After this circumstantial detail of the life and discerning 

 o-Topyr) of the swallow, I shall add, for your farther amuse- 

 ment, an anecdote or two not much in favour of her saga- 

 city : 



A certain swallow built for two years together on the 

 handles of a pair of garden-shears, that were stuck up against 

 the boards in an out-house, and therefore must have her nest 

 spoiled whenever that implement was wanted : and, what is 

 stranger still, another bird of the same species built it's nest 

 on the wings and body of an owl that happened by accident to 

 hang dead and dry from, the rafter of a barn. This owl, with 

 the nest on it's wings, and with eggs in the nest, was brought 

 as a curiosity worthy the most elegant private museum in 

 Great-Britain. The owner, struck with the oddity of the 

 sight, furnished the bringer with a large shell, or conch, de- 

 siring him to fix it just where the owl hung: the person did as 

 he was ordered, and the following year a pair, probably the 

 same pair, built their nest in the conch, and laid their eggs. 



The owl and the conch make a strange grotesque appear- 

 ance, and are not the least curious specimens in that wonderful 

 collection of .art and nature/ 



Thus is instinct in animals, taken the least out of it's way, 



f Sir Ashton Lever's Musseum *. 



* [The " Leverian Museum/ 7 as it was termed, was a very interesting 

 place of resort to Gilbert White on his occasional visits to London ; and 

 many references to its contents will be found in his letters to his brother 

 and nephew. " This fine collection, which was exhibited at Leicester 



