OF SELBORNE 185 



brood, which she supposed tc be in danger, that, regard- 

 less of her own safety, she would not stir, but lay sullenly 

 by Ihem, permitting herself to be taken in hand. The 

 squab young we brought down and placed on the grass- 

 plot, where they tumbled about, and were as helpless as 

 a new-born child. While we contemplated their naked 

 bodies, their unwieldy disproportioned abdomina, and 

 their heads, too heavy for tlieir necks to support, we could 

 not but wonder when we reflected that these shiftless 

 beings in a httle more than a fortnight would be able to 

 dash through the air almost with the inconceivable 

 swiftness of a meteor ; and perhaps, in their emigration 

 must traverse vast continents and oceans as distant as the 

 equator. So soon does nature advance small birds to 

 their ifKiKM, or state of perfection ; while the progressive 

 growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow and tedious 1 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXII 



Selbobne, Sept. 13, 1774. 



Dear Sir, 

 By means of a straight cottage chimney I had an 

 opportunity this summer of remarking, at my leisure, how 

 swallows ascend and descend through the shaft ; but my 

 pleasure, in contemplating the address with which this 

 feat was performed to a considerable depth in the 

 chimney, was somewhat interrupted by apprehensions 

 lest my eyes might undergo the same fate with those of 

 Tobit.* 



Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at 

 what times the different species of hirundines arrived this 



♦ Tobit ii. 10. 



