50 SWALLOWS. 



antly tenanted with small spiders, and to a height 

 almost incredible. Of the quantity, we may form 

 some idea, by the perfect carpeting of webs which 

 are occasionally seen in an autumnal morning, glis- 

 tening with moisture. These are the webs of the 

 gossamer-spider, which, rendered heavier by the 

 dew collecting on their slender threads, fall to the 

 ground, and cover whole acres. 



Of the height to which these spiders rise, we 

 have the evidence of a person, who, from the summit 

 of York Minster, nearly two hundred feet above the 

 ground, found himself surrounded by immense flights 

 of little spiders, floating upwards on their airy 

 webs; and could perceive them in equal numbers, 

 higher in the air, as far as the eye, aided by a good 

 telescope, could reach. 



It is a common weatjier rule, that when Swallows 

 fly low, there will be rain, but when high, it will be 

 fair. The reason may be readily guessed. They 

 feed entirely, as we have said, upon insects; and the 

 flight of insects depends, in a great degree, on the 

 state of the air; if it is clear and dry, they rise; if 

 moist, or likely to be so, they keep nearer the 

 ground, and thus, the Swallow, like the hand of the 

 clock, moved by invisible wheels and springs, tells 

 us when we may expect the weather to be moist or 

 dry. 



We have noticed some odd places chosen by birds 

 , for their nests, but none, perhaps, more curious than 

 those selected by Swallows, at the same time afford- 

 ing another proof of the constant return of birds to 

 the same places. That they do return is, indeed, a 

 fact established beyond a doubt, it having been 



