164 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
and on chimney tops : is also a bold flyer, ranging to distant 
downs and commons even in windy weather, which the other 
species seem much to dislike ; nay, even frequenting exposed 
sea-port towns, and making little excursions over the salt water. 
Horsemen on wide downs are often closely attended by a little 
party of swallows for miles together, which plays before and 
behind them, sweeping around, and collecting all the sculking 
insects that are roused by the trampling of the horses' feet : when 
the wind blows hard, without this expedient, they are often forced 
to settle to pick up their lurking prey. 
This species feeds much on little coleoptera, as well as on 
gnats and flies ; and often settles on dug ground, or paths, for 
gravels to grind and digest its food. Before they depart, for 
some weeks, to a bird, they forsake houses and chimneys, and 
roost in trees ; and usually withdraw about the beginning of Oc- 
tober ; though some few stragglers may appear on at times till 
the first week in November. 
Some few pairs haunt the new and open streets of London 
next the fields, but do not enter, like the house-martin, the close 
and crowded parts of the city. 
Both male and female are distinguished from their congeners 
by the length and forkedness of their tails. They are undoubt- 
edly the most nimble of all the species : and when the male 
pursues the female in amorous chase, they then go beyond their 
usual speed, and exert a rapidity almost too quick for the eye to 
follow.* 
After this circumstantial detail of the life and discerning 
GTopyr] of the swallow, I shall add, for your further amusement, 
an anecdote or two not much in favour of her sagacity : — 
A certain swallow built for two years together on the handles 
of a pair of garden-shears, that were stuck up against the boards 
in an out-house, and therefore must have her nest spoiled when- 
ever that implement was wanted : and, what is stranger still, 
another bird of the same species built its nest on the wings and 
body of an owl that happened by accident to hang dead and dry 
from the rafter of a barn. This owl, with the nest on its wings, 
* This species di.fFers from its congeners in invariably moulting abroad, both adults and young; 
the latter are distinguishable by the inferior gloss of the upper parts, by the paleness of the fore- 
head and throat as compared to the adults, and by the comparative shortness of the exterior 
tail-feathers. These are of course shed during their absence, as they return w ith the tail much 
more furcate ; but whether the wing-primaries are also changed cannot be inferred from compa- 
rison, though there can be little doubt of the fact from analogy with the eave and bank-swallows. 
—Ed. 
