240 Birds. 



did so ; and in the following year a pair of Swallows, 

 probably the same, built their nest in the shell and laid 



Modern poets have not been unmindful of the Swal- 

 lows ; and our immortal Shakspeare mentions the Martin, 

 in Macbeth, in the following manner : 



" This guest of summer, 

 The temple-haunting Martlet, does approve, 

 By his loved mansionry, that the Heaven's 

 Breath smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, 

 Buttress, nor coigne of 'vantage, but this bird 

 Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 

 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 

 The air is delicate." 



" The Swallow," writes Sir Humphry Davy, " is one 

 of my favourite birds, and a rival of the nightingale, for 

 he cheers my sense of seeing as much as the other does 

 my sense of hearing. He is the glad prophet of the year, 

 the harbinger of the best season he lives a life of enjoy- 

 ment amongst the liveliest forms of nature winter is 

 unknown to him ; and he leaves the green meadows of 

 England in autumn for the myrrh and orange groves of 

 Italy, and for the palms of Africa ; he has always objects 

 of pursuit, and his success is secure. Even the beings 

 selected for his prey are poetical, beautiful, and transient. 

 The ephemerae are saved by his means from a slow and 

 lingering death in the evening, and killed in a moment 

 when they have known nothing but pleasure. He is the 

 constant destroyer of insects, the friend of man, and may 

 be regarded as a sacred bird. His instinct, which gives 

 him his appointed season, and teaches him when and 

 where to move, may be regarded as flowing from a divine 

 source ; and he belongs to the oracles of nature, which 

 speak the awful and intelligible language of a present 

 Deity." 



The Chimney Swallow is, on the head, neck, back, and 

 rump, of a shining black colour, with purple gloss and 

 sometimes with a blue shade ; the throat and neck are of 

 the same colour; the breast and belly are white, with a dash 

 of red. The tail is forked, and consists of twelve feathers. 



