II. THE SWALLOW. 57 



Do you suppose that this is part of its 

 necessary economy, and that a swallow could 

 not catch flies unless it lived in a hole ? 

 . Not so. This instinct is part of its brother- 

 hood with anothci race of creatures. It is 

 given to complete a mesh in the reticulation 

 of the orders of life. 



55. I have already given 3'ou several reasons 

 for my wish that you should retain, in classi- 

 fying birds, the now rejected order of Picae. 

 I am going to read you a passage from Hum- 

 boldt, which shows you what difficulties one 

 may get into for want of it. 



You will find in the second volume of his 

 personal narrative, an account of the cave of 

 Caripe in New Andalusia, which is inhabited 

 by entirely nocturnal birds, having the gaping 

 mouths of the goat-sucker and the swallow, 

 and yet feeding on fruit. 



Unless, which Mr. Humboldt does not tell 

 us, they sit under the trees outside, in the 

 night time, and hold their mouths open, for 

 the berries to drop into, there is not the 

 smallest occasion for their having wide mouths, 

 like swallows. Still less is there any need, 

 since they are fruit eaters, for their living in 



