130 LETTERS TO MARCO xix 



now on the coping above my bedroom 

 window, enjoying the morning sun ; and I can 

 see their tails and the ends of their wings 

 projecting below, very like little more than 

 three straight lines, as in the sketch, the 



Swallow Tails and Wing-tips. 



centre line being the tail and the outer lines 

 the wings. 



Even Bewick has represented his swallow 

 with too forked a tail considering that the 

 bird is perched. The representation of the 

 forked tail, without regard to what the bird 

 is intended to be doing, has become, through 

 long custom, a conventionality. 



G. D. L. 



