THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
153 
from morning to night, that the light of heaven itself, 
the sky, the trees, or any other common objects of 
nature, are not better known than the swallows. We 
welcome their first appearance with delight, as the 
faithful harbingers and companions 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, 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 
zig-zag excursions, little inferior to the lightning it- 
self, and then attempt, by the powers of mathematics 
to calculate the length of the various lines it describes. 
