LETTER LVIII. 

 To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 



I RECEIVED your favour of the 8th, 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 pre- 

 cisely which species of hirundo Virgil might in- 

 tend in the lines in question, since the ancients did 

 not attend to specific differences like modern natu- 

 ralists ; 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, which 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 tignuin in that place signifies a rafter rather than a 

 beam, as it seems to me to do, then 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 



