to their latebrcE, Nor make I the least doubt but 

 that, if I lived at Newhaven, Seaford, Brighthelm- 

 stone, or any of those towns near the chalk-cliffs of 

 the Sussex coast, I should by proper observations, 

 see swallows stirring at periods of the winter when 

 the noons were soft and inviting and the sun warm 

 and invigorating. And I am the more of this opin- 



the song which they sang may be seen in the works of Meursius, v. 3, p. 

 974, fol. 



''npas ay ovaa, Koi kuXovs 'EviavTovs 

 ''Eiri ydcTTcpa Aeu«a, k' em uwra fx^Kaiva. 



" He comes ! He comes I who loves to bear 

 Soft sunny hours and seasons fair ; — 

 The swallow hither comes to rest 

 His sable wing and snowy breast." 



And alluding to this custom, Avienus (who may be considered only as a 

 very bad translator of an excellent poem, the " Periegesis " of Dionysius) 

 thus says, v. 705, — 



Nam cum vere novo, tellus se dura relaxat, 

 Culminibusque cavis, blandum strepit ales hirundo 

 Gens devota chores agitat ! " 



*' When in early spring the iron soil relaxes, comes the swallow chirp- 

 ing pleasantly from the hollow eaves, and the pious people begin to 

 dance." 



From a passage in the Birds" of Aristophanes, we learn that among 

 the Greeks the a^ane pointed out the time of solving ; the arrival of the 

 kite, the time of sheep-shearijig ; and the swallow, the time to put on 

 summer-clothes. According to the Greek calendar of Flora, kept by 

 Theophrastus at Athens, the Ornithian winds blow, and the swallow 

 comes between the 28th of February and the I2th of March ; the kite 

 and nightingale appear between the iith and 26th of March ; the cuckoo 

 appears at the same time the young figs come out, thence his name. — 

 Stillingfleet's Tracts on Natural History, 



176 



