SWALLOWS. 49 



elude that it is by no means so active on the wing as 

 others with a larger expansion, and consequently 

 unable so adroitly ta guide itself, and avoid danger ; 

 which may account, at the same time, for its being 

 more readily seized by the Swallows, and also for its 

 being carried headlong into the eye, if the eye liap- 

 pensto be in the line of its accidental course. Those 

 who have experienced the annoyance of these minute 

 intruders, will well remember the extreme pain felt, 

 as soon as the eye closes upon its prisoner: this is 

 occasioned, as the annexed figure will show, by the 

 irritation produced, when the insect, as in the case 

 of its larger representative on the gravel walk, on 

 being caught, instantly darts up its tail, covered with 

 similar sharp and fork-like appendages. 



Sta.pliylinus Bracliyri cru.-, :.. 



Our readers, on perusing the above narrative of 

 the torpid state of the migratory Swallows, may 

 have been surprised that spiders should be found in 

 the mouth of a bird collecting its food on the wing ; 

 but they will be still more so, in hearing that spiders 

 form a very considerable part of the food of the Swift, 

 which flies higher in search of insects than any other 

 insect-feeding bird. The fact is, the air is abund- 



VOL. II. E 



