356 BARN SWALLOW. 
of Nal ute, are not better known than the Swallows. We welcome 
their first appearance with delight, as the faithful harbingers and com- 
panions of flowery spring and ruddy summer; and when, after a long, 
frost-bound, and boisterous winter, we hear it announced, that “the 
Swallows are come,” what a train of charming ideas are associated 
with the simple tidings! 
The wonderful activity displayed by these birds forms a striking 
contrast to the slow habits of most other animals. It may be fairly 
questioned, whether, among the whole feathered tribes which Heaven 
has formed to adorn this part of creation, there be any that, in the same 
space of time, pass over an equal extent of surface with the Swallow. 
Let a person take his stand, ona fine summer evening, by a new-mown 
field, meadow, or river shore, for a short time, and, among the numer- 
ous individuals of this tribe that flit before him, fix his eye on a partic- 
ular one, and follow, for a while, all its circuitous labyrinths — its 
extensive sweeps—its sudden, rapidly-reiterated zigzag excursions, 
little inferior to the lightning itself, — and then attempt, by the powers 
of mathematics, to calculate the length of the various lines it describes. 
Alas! even his omnipotent fluxions would avail him little here, and 
he would soon abandon the task in despair. Yet, that some defi- 
nite conception may be formed of this extent, let us suppose that this 
little bird flies, in his usual way, at the rate of one mile in a minute, 
which, from the many experiments I have made, I believe to be within 
the truth; and that he is so engaged for ten hours every day; and far- 
ther, that this active life is extended to ten years, (many of our small 
birds being known to live much longer, even in a state of domestica- 
tion,) the amount of all these, allowing three hundred and sixty-five 
days to a year, would give us two million one hundred and ninety 
thousand miles ; upwards of eighty-seven times the circumference of 
the globe! Yet this little winged seraph, if I may so speak, who, in a 
few days, and at will, can pass from the borders of the arctic regions 
to the torrid zone, is forced, when winter approaches, to descend to 
the bottoms of lakes, rivers, and mill-ponds, to bury itself in the mud 
with eels and snapping turtles; or to creep ingloriously into a cavern, 
a rat-hole, or a hollow tree, there to doze, with snakes, toads, and 
other reptiles, until the return of spring! Is not this true, ye wise 
men of Europe and America, who have published so many credible 
narratives on this subject? The Geese, the Lucks, the Cat-Bird, and 
even the Wren, which creeps about our outhouses in summer like a 
mouse, are all acknowledged to be migratory, and to pass to southern 
regions at the approach of winter; the Swallow alone, on whom 
Heaven has conferred superior powers of wing, must sink in torpidity 
at the bottom of our rivers, or doze all winter in the caverns of the 
earth. I am myself something ofa traveller, and foreign countries 
of autumn. The leaves were now fast falling from their branches, while the naked 
tops of many of the trees appeared. The golden sheaves were safely lodged in 
the barns, and the reapers had shouted their harvest-home. Frosty and misty 
mornings succeeded, the certain presages of the approach of winter. ‘They were 
omens understood by the Swallows, as signals for their merch ; and on the mornin, 
of the 7th of October, their mighty army broke up their zncampment, debouche 
from their retreat, rising, covered the heavens with their fegions, and, directed by 
an unerring guide, took their trackioss way.” — En. 
