164 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



and on chimney tops : is also a bold flyer, ranging to distant 

 downs and commons even in windy weather, which the other 

 species seem much to dislike ; nay, even frequenting exposed 

 sea-port towns, and making little excursions over the salt water. 

 Horsemen on wide downs are often closely attended by a little 

 party of swallows for miles together, which plays before and 

 behind them, sweeping around, and collecting all the sculking 

 insects that are roused by the trampling of the horses* feet : when 

 the wind blows hard, without this expedient, they are often forced 

 to settle to pick up their lurking prey. 



This species feeds much on little coleoptera, as well as on 

 gnats and flies ; and often settles on dug ground, or paths, for 

 gravels to grind and digest its food. Before they depart, for 

 some weeks, to a bird, they forsake houses and chimneys, and 

 roost in trees ; and usually withdraw about the beginning of Oc- 

 tober ; 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 congeners 

 by the length and forkedness of their tails. They are undoubt- 

 edly 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 

 <rropyj? of the swallow, I shall add, for your further amusement, 

 an anecdote or two not much in favour of her sagacity : 



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 when- 

 ever that implement was wanted : and, what is stranger still, 

 another bird of the same species built its 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 its wings, 



* This species differs from its congeners in invariably moulting abroad, both adults and young : 

 the latter are distinguishable by the inferior gloss of the upper parts, by the paleness of the fore- 

 head and throat as compared to the adults, and by the comparative shortness of the exterior 

 tail-feathers. These are of course shed during their absence, as they return with the tail much 

 more furcate ; but whether the wing-primaries are also changed cannot be inferred from compa- 

 rison, though there can be little doubt of the fact from analogy with the eave and bank-swallow*, 

 En, 



