150 The Natural History 



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 garrida suits the swallow 

 well, who is a great songster ; but not the martin, which 

 is rather a mute bird ; and when it sings is so inward as 

 scarce to be heard. Besides, if tigmun in that place 

 signifies a rafter rather than a beam, as it seems to me to 

 do, then I think it must be the swallow 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 

 without the roof against eaves and cornices. 



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

 it : yet the epithet nigra speaks plainly in favour of the 

 swallow, whose back and wings are very black ; while the 

 rump of the martin is milk-white, its back and wings blue, 

 and all its under part white as snow. Nor can the clumsy 

 motions (comparatively clumsy) of the martin well repre- 

 sent the sudden and artful evolutions and quick turns 

 which Juturna gave to her brother's chariot, so as to 

 elude the eager pursuit of the enraged ^neas. The 

 verb so}iat also seems to imply a bird that is somewhat 

 loquacious.^ 



We have had a very wet autumn and winter, so as to 

 raise the springs to a pitch beyond anything since 1764 ; 

 which was a remarkable year for floods and high waters. 

 The land-springs, which we call lavants, break out much 

 on the downs of Sussex, Hampshire and Wiltshire. The 

 country people say when the lavants rise corn will always 

 be dear ; meaning that when the earth is so glutted with 

 water as to send forth springs on the downs and uplands, 

 that the corn-vales must be drowned ; and so it has 

 proved for these ten or eleven years past. For land- 



^ '* Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis sedes 

 Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, 

 Tabula parva legcns, nidisque loquacibus escas : 

 lit nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum 

 Stagna sonat. ..." 



