156 SWALLOWS. 



Thus is instinct in animals, taken the least out of its way, 

 an undistinguishing, limited faculty, and blind to every circum- 

 stance that does not immediately respect self-preservation, or 

 lead at once to the propagation or support of their species. 



LETTER LVIII. 



TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, February 14, 1774. 



DEAR SiR,>-^I received your favour of the eighth, 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 hit- undo 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 marten, 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 marten, 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 

 marten is milk-white, its back and wings blue, and all its under 

 part white as snow. Nor can the clumsy motions (compara* 

 tively clumsy) of the marten well represent 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 



* We have seen that the marten and cliff-swallow of America have 

 changed their habits, so far as their breeding places are concerned. The 

 former has been known to breed in caverns, as mentioned in our note at 

 page 142, and the latter has deserted the cliff of the desert for the abode 

 of man, as noticed in our note, pages 150, 151 : so that the argument 

 made use of by our author is no evidence in favour of the point he wishes to 

 establish. ED. 



