ISO THE NATURAL HISTORY 



your usual candour : nor was I less pleased to find that 

 you made objections where you saw reason. 



As to the quotations, it is difficult to say precisely which 

 species of hirundo Virgil might intend in the lines in ques- 

 tion, since the ancients did not attend to specific differences 

 like modern naturalists : 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 garrula suits the swallow 

 well, who is a great songster; but not the martin, which is 

 rather a mute bird ; and when it sings is so inward as scarce 

 to be heard. Besides, if tignum in that place signifies a 

 rafter rather than a beam, as it seems to me to do, then I 

 think 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 favour of the swallow, 

 whose back and wings are very black ; while the rump of 

 the martin is milk-white, its back and wings blue, and all 

 its under part white as snow. Nor can the clumsy motions 

 (comparatively clumsy) of the martin well represent the 

 sudden and artful evolutions and quick turns which Juturna 

 gave to her brother's chariot, so as to elude the eager pursuit 

 of the enraged Aeneas. The verb sonat also seems to imply 

 a bird that is somewhat loquacious.^ 



We have had a very wet autumn and winter, so as to 

 raise the springs to a pitch beyond any thing since 1764; 

 which was a remarkable year for floods and high waters. 

 The landsprings, which we call lavants, break out much on 

 the do wns of Sussex, Hampshire and Wiltshire. The country 

 people say when the lavants rise corn will always be dear ; 



i " Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis aedes 

 Pervolat, ct pennis alta atria lustrat hiiundo, 

 P.'.bula parvj legens, nidisque loquacibus escas : 

 Et nunc porticibus vaciiis, nunc humida circum 

 Stagna sonat. — — — — ." — Aen. xii. 473-477. 



