II. THE SWALLOW, 65 



62. Now I have first traced for you the re- 

 lations of the creature we are examining to 

 thosc beneatli it and above, to the bat and to 

 the falcon. But you will find that it has still 

 others to entirely another world. As you 

 watch it glance and skim over the surface of 

 the waters, has it never struck you what re- 

 lation it bears to the creatures that glance and 

 glide under their surface ? Fly-catchers, some 

 of them, also, — fly-catchers in the same man- 

 ner, with wide mouth ; while in motion the bird 

 almost exactly combines the dart of the trout 

 with the dash of the dolphin, to the rounded 

 forehead and projecting muzzle of which its 

 own bullet head and bill exactly correspond. 

 In its plunge, if you watch it bathing, you may 

 see it dip its breast just as much under the 

 water as a porpoise shows its back above. 

 You can only rightly describe the bird by the 

 resemblances, and images of what it seems to 

 have changed from, — then adding the fantastic 

 and beautiful contrast of the unimaginable 

 change. It is an owl that has been trained by 

 the Graces. It is a bat that loves the morning 

 light. It is the aerial reflection of a dolphin. 

 It is the tender domestication of a trout. 



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