BIRDS. 287 



Wlien summer is fairly begun, mid more tlian a suflicient sup- 

 j)ly for sustaining the wants of nature every where offers, the 

 swallow then begins to think of forming a progeny. Tiie nest 

 Js built with great industry and ai-t, particularly by the eommoti 



ami lie leaves the green meadows of England in antimm, for the myrtle and 

 orange groves of Italy, and for the p;Ums of Africa." 



The sentiiucut is from Anacreon, and it is worthy of the joyousnoss of tho 

 old Grecian. 



" Gentle bird ! we find thee here 

 When Nature wears her sunimpr vest ; 

 Thou com'st to weave thy simple nest ; 

 And when the ehilling winter lowers. 

 Again thou seek'st the geniiU bowers 

 Of Memphis, or the shores of Nile, 

 Where sunny hours of verdure smile." 



The places which the swallow loves are consecrated, too, by onr great 

 dramatic poet, in one of his most characteristic passages, in which, after the 

 turmoil of dark passions, the mind is for a moment relieved by the contrast 

 of pure feelings, clothed in the most exquisite language. 



" This guest of summer. 

 The teniple-haimting martlet, does approve 

 By bis lov'd mansionry, that tho lieaven's breath 

 Swells wooingly here : no jetty, frieze, buttress. 

 Nor coign of vantage, but this bird hath made 

 His pendant bed, and procreant cradle : where they 

 Most breed and haiuit, I have observed, the ail 

 Is delicate." 



But the attractions of poetry are not required to give a charm to tli« 

 " loved mansionry" of this delightful bird. 



It is the voice of innocent gladness ; the bird is happy, as it seems to us, 

 because it is constantly active in its proper duties. The swallow's nest, 

 though it may appear to deform the trim mansion, is seldom disturbed, even 

 though the old pious feeling towards the bird has passed away. A writer 

 in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' says, "for my part I am not ashamed to 

 own, that I have tempted window-swallows to build roiuid my house, bv 

 fixing scollop shells in places convenient for their ' pendant beds and pro- 

 creant cradles ;' and have been much pleased in observing with what can. 

 tion the little architect raises a buttress under each shell, before he ventures 

 to form Iiis nest on it." 



Some less poetical however, it would appear, have a dislike to the win- 

 dow-swallow, and have even gone so for as to endeavour to banish it by pre. 

 venting it from building. In tliis vein, we are instructed, by a recent peri, 

 odical writer, how to discard them. It appears, he says, from experiment 

 made at Granton, that if the places in the corners of windows and under 

 eaves where the swallows build, are well rubbed with oil and soft soap 



