NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 11 



Avay further north, and part to reside during the season. 

 Wilson ascertained during his residence with Mr. Bartram, 

 in the summer of 1811, that in the Botanic Garden and 

 the adjoining buildings, comprehending an extent of little 

 more than eight acres, not less than fifty-one pairs of birds 

 took up their abode and built their nests. 



Return we then to our own happy land, and our o^vn 

 swallows. 



^lian and Plutarch declare that the fly and the 

 swallow are the only animals which cannot be tamed. 

 Pliny gives the swallow two other ' indocible' companions 

 in his foi'ty -fifth chapter setting forth 'what birds are 

 not apt to learne, and will not be taught.' 



And now (says the Roman zoologist, speaking through the 

 mouth of the venerable Philemon Holland), — and now that wc 

 are in this discourse of wit and capacitie, I must not omit to note 

 that of birds the swallow, and of land beasts the mouse and the 

 rat, are very untoward, and cannot be brought to learn ; whereas 

 we see great elejihants ready to do whatever they are commanded ; 

 the furious lions brought to draw under the y oke ; the seals within 

 the sea, and so many fishes grow to be tame and gentle. 



Whether, as time has rolled on, swallows have become 

 more civilised and docile, or man has arrived at greater 

 excellence in the art of domesticatinsr and taminsf 

 animals, are questions which are not for discussion here; 

 but certain it is that swallows become very familiar in 

 confinement, and to the observations made in this state 

 we owe the knowledge that their moult takes place in 

 January and February, for they have been so kept for 

 many months. 



In September, 1800, the Pev. Walter Trevelyan wrote 

 from Long-Witton, Northumberland, in a letter to the 

 editor of Bewick's ^v'iiisA Birds, the following narrative, 

 which is so simply and beautifully written, and gives so 

 clear an account of the process of taming, that it would 

 be unjust to recite it in any words but his own for the 



