BARN SWALL OW. 1 29 



The wonderful activity displayed by these birds forms a 

 striking constrast to the slow habits of most other animals. 

 It may be fairly questioned whether, among the whole fea- 

 thered 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, on a fine summer evening, by a new-mown 

 field, meadow, or river shore, for a short time, and among 

 the numerous individuals of this tribe that flit before him, 

 fix his eye on a particular one, and follow for a while all 

 its circuitous labyrinths — its extensive sweeps — its sudden, 

 rapidly reiterated zigzag excursions, little inferior to the light- 

 ning 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 

 definite 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 en- 

 gaged for ten hours every day ; and further, 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 domestication), 

 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 cir- 

 cumference 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 



of the 7th of October, their mighty army broke up their encampment, 

 debouched from their retreat, rising, covered the heavens with their 

 legions, and, directed by an unerring guide, took their trackless way." 

 —Ed. 



VOL. II. I 



