MARTIN SWALLOW. 165 



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, desiring 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 appearance, 

 and are not the least curious specimens in that wonderful collec- 

 tion of art and nature.* 



Thus is instinct in animals, taken the least out of its way, an 

 undistinguishing, limited faculty ; and blind to every circumstance 

 that does not immediately respect self-preservation, or lead at 

 once to the propagation or support of their species. 



I am, with all respect, &c. &c. 



LETTER XIX. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



DEAR SIR, Selborne, Feb. 14, 1774. 



I RECEIVED your favour of the eighth, and am pleased to find 

 that you read my little history of the swallow with your usual 

 candour : nor was I the less pleased to find that you made objec- 

 tions where you saw reason. 



As to the quotations, it is difficult to say precisely which spe- 

 cies of hirundo Virgil might intend in the lines in question, since 

 the ancients did not attend to specific differences like modern 

 naturalists : yet somewhat may be gathered, enough to incline 

 me to suppose that in the two passages quoted the poet had his 

 eye on the swallow. 



In the first place the epithet garrula suits the swallow well, 

 who is a great songster ; and not the martin, which is rather a 

 mute bird, and when it sings is so inward as scarce to be heard. 

 Besides, if tigrmm in that place signifies a rafter rather than a 

 beam, as it seems to me to do, then I think it must be the swal- 

 low that is alluded to, and not the martin ; since the former does 

 frequently build within the roof against the rafters ; while the 

 latter always, as far as I have been able to observe, builds with- 

 out the roof against eaves and cornices. 



As to the simile, too much stress must not be laid on it : yet 



* Sir Ashton Lever's Musaeum. 



