BRITISH BIRDS. 297 



<5tt>allon>. 



OF all the families of birds which resort to this 

 island for incubation, food, or shelter, there is none 

 which has occasioned so many conjectures respect- 

 ing its appearance and departure as the Swallow 

 tribe; of this we have already treated in the intro- 

 ductory part of the work, to which we refer the 

 reader. Their habits and modes of living are 

 perhaps more conspicuous than those of any other. 

 Their arrival has ever been associated in our minds 

 with the idea of spring; and till the time of their 

 departure they seem continually before our eyes. 

 The Swallow lives almost constantly in the air, 

 and performs many of its functions in that element ; 

 and whether it pursues the devious windings of 

 the insects on which it feeds, or endeavours to 

 escape the birds of prey by the quickness of its 

 motion, it describes lines so mutable, so inter- 

 woven, and so confused, that they hardly can be 

 pictured by words. " The Swallow tribe is of 

 all others the most inoffensive, entertaining, and 

 social; all, except one species, attach themselves 

 to our houses, amuse us with their migrations, 

 songs, and marvellous agility, and clear the air 

 of gnats and other troublesome insects, which 

 would otherwise much annoy and incommode us. 

 Whoever contemplates the myriads of insects that 

 sport in the sunbeams of a summer evening in this 



* The order Chelidones of Temminck consists of three British 

 genera, viz., Hirundo, Cypselus, Caprimulgus. 

 VOL I. 2 P 



