552 



WINDOW SWALLOW. 



saw was about fifty nests, arranged in a contiguous line, under the north 

 eave of Mr. Heneage's stables, at Compton House, Wiltshire. 1 



In consequence of our associating the appearance of the Swallow with 

 the infancy of summer, when the woods and fields are awakened from 

 their winter sleep, by the increasing warmth of the sunshine, it is, I 

 imagine, a very general favourite. Some of our northern neighbours, 

 however, it would appear, have a dislike to the Window Swallow, 

 (ZT. urbica,) and have even gone so far as to endeavour to banish it, 

 by preventing it from building. In this vein we are instructed, by a 

 recent periodical writer, how to cut their acquaintance, and discard 

 them. It appears, he says, from experiments made at Granton, that 

 if the places in the corners of windows, and under eaves, where the 

 swallows build, are well rubbed with oil and soft soap, they will not be 

 able to make their clay adhere to the wall, and being once foiled, they 

 will not renew their attempt for some years afterwards. 



There can be no possible objection to this being tried by any swallow- 

 hater who chooses ; but I am certain that no sincere lover of nature — 

 nobody who has music in his soul, and delights, as the poet Gray did, 

 to hear 



" The swallow twittering from his straw-built shed," 

 will be apt to adopt the expedient. Old Anacreon might perhaps have 

 been glad of the suggestion, when, being disturbed in some of his 

 morning dreams, he threatens to clip the swallow's wings, and even to 

 cut out its tongue : — 



" Silly swallow ! prating thing, 

 Shall I clip that wheeling wing ; 

 Or, as Tereus did of old, 

 (So the fabled tale is told,) 

 Shall I tear that tongue away — 

 Tongue that uttered such a lay !" 2 

 But he would soon have repented of the barbarity ; or, rather, he would 

 have stopped short at the recollection of the swallow's being the herald 

 of summer, exclaiming — 



" Gentle bird! we find thee here. 

 When Nature wears her summer vest, 

 Thou com'st to weave thy simple nest ; 

 And when the chilling winter lowers, 

 Again thou seek'st the genial bowers 

 Of Memphis, or the shores of Nile, 

 Where sunny hours of verdure smile." 



1 Architecture of Birds. Chap, on Mason Birds, p. 96. 

 2 Moore's Trans! . of Anacreon. Ode 12. 



