156 THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
that of a man? Can a bird, whose vital functions 
are destroyed by a short privation of pure air, and 
its usual food, sustain, for six months, a situation 
where the most robust man would perish in a few 
hours or minutes ? Away with such absurdities ! 
they are unworthy of a serious refutation. I should 
be pleased to meet with a man who has been per- 
sonally more conversant with birds than myself, who 
has followed them in their wide and devious routes 
— studied their various manners — mingled with and 
marked their peculiarities more than I have done ; 
yet the miracle of a resuscitated swallow, in the depth 
of winter, from the bottom of a mill-pond, is, I con- 
fess, a phenomenon in ornithology that I have never 
met with/^ 
From my own observations I have reason to think 
swallows are very alfectionate to each other ; and the 
following verses were written on the occasion of a 
gentleman having thoughtlessly shot one of those 
harmless little creatures : — 
The burning noon was on the hill. 
The herds had sought the shade, 
And nature, motionless and still, 
In slumbering bliss was laid. 
