256 THE SWALLOW. 



Swallows, would seem to entitle them to be called reasoning 

 animals. 



Let me here introduce a little anecdote, corroborative of 

 what I have been saying of the superior intellect of the Swal- 

 low. I received it from a person on whose veracity I can 

 place the most perfect reliance, and who himself witnessed 

 the whole of the proceedings. I have heard a similar story, 

 but never before from such good authority. 



A pair of Swallows built their nest against one of the first 

 floor windows of an uninhabited house in Merrion Square, 

 Dublin. A sparrow, however, took possession of it, and the 

 Swallows were repeatedly seen clinging to the nest, and 

 endeavoring to gain an entrance to the abode they had 

 erected with so much labor. All their efforts, however, were 

 defeated by the sparrow, who never once quitted the nest. 

 The perseverance of the Swallows was at length exhausted : 

 they took flight, but shortly afterwards returned, accompanied 

 by a number of their congeners, each of them having a piece 

 of dirt in its bill. By this means they succeeded in stopping 

 up the hole, and the intruder was immured in total darkness. 

 Soon afterwards the nest was taken down and exhibited to 

 several persons, with the dead sparrow in it. In this case 

 there appears to have been not only a reasoning faculty, but 

 the birds must have been possessed of the power of commu- 

 nicating their wishes, or rather, their resentments, to their 

 fellow species ; without whose aid they could not thus have 

 avenged the injury they had sustained. This anecdote may 

 appear to many persons marvellous and improbable, but I am 

 as much convinced of its truth, as if it had been witnessed by 

 all the world. It is Grotius, I think, who styles this faculty 

 in animals, " extranea ratio ;" and the Swallow, certainly, 

 appears to possess it in a great degree. 



Swallows delight in warm and sunny situations, probably 

 because flies are more abundant there than in other places. 

 That accurate observer of nature, Shakspeare, speaking of 

 martins and Swallows, says, 



"Where they do bide and build, 

 The air is temperate." 



