198 SWALLOWS. 



XIX. 



I RECEIVED your favour of the eighth [of 

 February], 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 objections where you saw reason. 



As to the quotations, it is difficult to say 

 precisely which species 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 tignum 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 



