38 On the wanton Destruction of Swallows. 
is to be believed, and, being ‘ Nature’s child,” he was no 
inaccurate observer of her ways, the oeccurrence of this bird 
at any place in more than ordinary numbers is a symptom of 
the fineness and salubrity of the air :— 
“ This guest of summer, 
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 
By his loved mansionry, that heaven’s breath 
Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, 
Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle. 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed 
The air is delicate.” Macbeth. 
From the quotations already made in defence and recom- 
mendation of our British Hirindines, you will perceive, 
Mr. Editor, that J am, as Sir Henry Wotton says, “but a 
gatherer of other men’s stuff; at my best value.” Availing 
myself, therefore, of my privilege, I trust I shall have your 
pardon, if not your thanks, for concluding my remarks with 
another extract from a modern writer, which, for its truth, 
beauty, and vivacity, cannot easily be surpassed or equalled. 
“I delight in this living landscape! The swallow is one of 
my favourite birds, and a rival of the nightingale; for he glads 
my sense of seeing, as much as the other does my sense of 
hearing. He is the joyous prophet of the year, the harbinger 
of the best season; he lives a life of enjoyment amongst the 
loveliest forms of nature; winter is unknown to him, and he 
leaves the green meadows of England in autumn, for the 
myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of 
Africa: he has always objects of pursuit, and his success is 
secure. Even the beings selected for his prey are poetical, 
beautiful, and transient. The ephemerz are saved by his 
means from a slow and lingering death in the evening, and 
killed in a moment, when they have known nothing of life but 
pleasure. He is the constant destroyer of insects, the friend 
of man ; and, with the stork and the ibis, may be regarded as a 
sacred bird. His instinct, which gives him his appointed sea- 
sons, and which teaches him always when and where to move, 
may be regarded as flowing from a Divine Source; and he 
belongs to the oracles of nature, which speak the awful and 
intelligible language of a present Deity.”* 
After this glowing and inimitable passage, any further re- 
marks from me would be worse than superfluous; I beg, 
therefore, to subscribe myself. Yours, &c. 
Nov. 23. 1829. PHILOCHELIDON, 
* Salmonia, p, 79. 
