XI J. IX 
A. I he urbica, or marlin, is inferior in size 
to the chimney swallow, and its tail much 
less forked, i'he head and upper part of the 
body, except the' rump, are black, glossed 
win blue; the breast, belly, and rump, are 
'' ‘ Jl ^ e 1 tne feet are covered with a short white 
clown, j l)',s is the second of the swallow kiiwi 
that appears in our country. • They begin to 
•appear about the 16th of- April. About the 
middle of May, if the weather is line, the 
martin begins to think in earnest of providing 
a mansion for its family. As this bird often 
builds against a perpendicular wall without 
.any projecting ledge under, it requires its 
utmost^ efforts to get the first foundation 
firmly fixed, so .that it may safely carry the 
superstructure. That this work may' not, 
v/liile it is soft and green, pull itself down by 
its own weight, the provident architect has 
prudence and forbearance enough not to ad- 
vance her work too fast; but by building 
only in the morning, and by dedicating the 
•xest of tiie day to food and amusement, gives 
it sufficient time. to dry and harden. By this 
method in about 10 or 12 days is formed an 
hemispheric nest, with a small aperture to- 
wards the top, strong, compact, and warm, 
and perfectly fitted for all the purposes for 
'\liicn it was intended. But -then nothing is 
more common than for the house-sparrow, 
as soon as the shell is finished, to seize on it 
as its own, to eject the owner, and to line it 
.after ifs own manner. At first, when the 
young are hatched, and are in a naked and 
helpiess condition, 'the parent birds, with 
tender assiduity, carry out what comes away 
from their young. YVas it not for this affec- 
tionate cleanliness the nestlings -would soon 
be burnt up and destroyed in so deep and 
hollow a nest by their own caustic cxcre- 
As soon as the young are able to 
shift tor themselves, the dams immediately 
iturn (heir thoughts to the business of a second 
brood: while the first flight, shaken off and 
•rejected by their nurses, congregate in great 
flocks, and are the birds that are seen cluster- 
ing and hovering on sunny mornings and 
evenings on round towers and steeples, and on 
tiie roofs of churches and houses. As the 
summer declines the congregating flocks in- 
crease in numbers .daily, by the constant ac- 
cession of the second broods, till at last they 
warm in myriads upon myriads round the 
illorr/»c nn f * il. r 
villages on the Thames, darkening the face 
of the sky as they frequent the aits of that 
river, where they roost. They retire in vast 
flocks together about thebeginning ofOctober. 
Unless these birdsare very short-lived indeed, 
or unless they do not return to the district 
where they are bred, they must undergo vast 
devastations somehow, and somewhere ; for 
the birds that return yearly bear no manner 
ef proportion to the birds that retire. 
4. r \ he riparia, sand-martin, or shore-bird, 
is 4-| inches in length, with the whole up- 
per parts of the body of a mouse co- 
lour, (lie throat and under parts white, the 
bill and legs blackish. It is common about 
the banks of rivers and sand-pits, where 
it terebrates a round and regular hole in the 
sand or earth, which is serpentine, horizontal, 
and about two fe. t deep. At the inner end 
of this burrow the bird deposits her rude 
best, .consisting of tine grasses and feathers, 
usually goose-feathers, very inarbtidallv laid 
together. 
5. The apus, or swift, .is a large species, 
being near eight inches long, with an extent 
of wing near 18 inches, though the weight of 
the bird is only one ounce. 'Their feet are so 
small, that the action of walking and rising 
from the ground is extremely difficult"; 
but nature has made it full amends, by fur- 
nishing it with ample means for an easy and 
continual flight. It is more on the wing than 
any other swallow; its flight is more raoid, 
and that attended with a shrill scream. It rests 
by clinging against some wail, or oth r apt 
body ; whence Klein styles this species hi- 
rundo muraria. It breeds under the eaves 
of houses, in steeples, and other lofty build- 
ings; and makes its nest of. grasses and fea- 
thers. The feet of this species are of a par- 
ticular structure, all the toes standing for- 
ward. the least consists ot only one bone; 
the others of an equal number, viz. two 
each, in which they .differ from those of all 
other birds: a construction, however, nicely 
adapted to the purposes in -which their feet 
are employed, bee Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 227. 
I he swift is a summer inhabitant of these 
kingdoms. It comes the latest, and departs 
the soonest, of any of the tribe ; not always 
staying to the middle of August, and often 
not arriving before the beginning of May. 
6. Hie inelba, or white bellied swiftj is in 
length eight inches and a half, and weighs 
two ounces five drains. 
/. 1 he eayennensis, or white coloured 
swallow, is about. the size of the martin .: the 
head and bill are black ; the chin and throat 
white, passing from the last in a narrow col- 
lar round the neck : between the bill and eye 
is a streak of white, which forks off into two, 1 
one passing a little above, and the other a ; 
little way beneath, the eye: the rest of the ; 
plumage is blade, with a gloss of violet ; but 
the greater coverts, nearest the body, are 1 
brown edged with white. This bird ‘makes 
its nest in the houses at Cayenne. It is of a 
huge size, in shape. of a truncated cone ; five 
inches one way by three the other, and nine 
inches in length. It is composed of the 
down of dog’s-bane, well woven together ; tiie 
cavity divided obliquely about the middle, 
lengthways, by a partition, which spreads it- 
self over that part of the nest where the -eggs 
lie, which is pretty near the base : a small 
parcel of the same soft down, forming a kind 
of plug, is placed over the top, serving to 
keep the young brood from the impression of 
the air, from which we may suppose them to 
be very tender. 
By the myriads of insects which every 
single brood ot swallows destroys in the course 
of a summer, they defend us in a great mea- 
sure from the personal and domestic annoy- 
ance of flies and gnats; and, what is of infi- 
nitely more consequence, they keep down 
the numbers of our minute enemies, who, ei- 
tlier in the grub or winged state, would other- 
wise render the labours ot the husbandman 
fruitless. Since then swallows are guardians 
of our corn, they, should every where be pro- 
tected by the same popular veneration which 
m Egypt defends the ibis, and the stork in 
Holland. We more frequently hear of un- I 
productive harvests on the Continent than in 1 
this country ; and it is well known that swal- 
lows are caught and sold as food in the mar- 
kets or Spain, France, and Italy. In Eng- 
land we are not driven to such resources to 
furnish our tables. But what apology can be 
made for those, and many there are, whose 
education and rank should have taught them 
more innocent amusements, who wantonly 
murder swallows, under the idle pretence of 
improving their skill in shooting game? bet- 
ting aside the cruelty of starving"whole nests 
of young by killing {he dam ; those who fol- 
low this barbarous diversion would do well to 
reflect, that by every swallow they kill, they 
assist blasts, mildews, and vermin, in causing 
a scai city of bread. Every lord of a manor 
s.-ouid i estrain his game-keeper from this 
I execrable practice ; nor should lie permit any 
! person do sport on his lands who does not re- 
! train from it. 
I H ISPA, in zoology, a genus of insects be- 
j longing to the coleoptera order, the charac- 
; ters ct "'Inch are these : the antenna: are fu- 
siform, growing gradually larger from each 
extremity towards the middle, and are si- 
tuated between the eyes ; the thorax and 
elytra are covered with protuberances or 
spines. r l lie larva of this insect seems to be 
yet wholly unknown. There are but two 
species of the perfect animal met with in 
Europe ; one of which, the atra, is found in 
Britain, and is all over of a deep unpolished 
olack, and lias the upper part of its body en- 
tirely covered with long and strong spines 
which render it bristly like the shell of a clies- 
nut. i here is even a spine at the case of 
the an ten me ; the thorax has a row set trans- 
versely, which are forked ; and the elytra are 
furnished with a very great number that are 
, sin § le - . thus covered with spines 
j makes it resemble a hedge-hog in miniature. 
I Jt ls teller hard to catch, letting itself fall 
; down to the ground as soon as' approached, 
j It bears its antennae upright before it. See 
j Hate Nat. Hist. tig. 229. 
UISTEB, a genus of insects of the cole- 
I optera order. I lie generic character is, an- 
j f enmK headed by a somewhat solid tip, lowest 
joint compressed and decurv£d ; head re- 
tractile; mouth forcipated; wing-sheaths 
: shoiter than the body ; fore-legs toothed, 
j Ihe most common European species of 
t.ns genus is the bister unicolor of Linn a: us. 
It is entirely of a glossy coal-black colour, 
and of a slightly flattened shape, varying 
considerably in size, but usually measuring 
about the third of an inch in length, and is 
otten seen in gardens, sandy fields, &c. Its 
larva seems to be unknown. 
Histei quadrimaculatus, has much the 
appeal ance of a small beetle ; its shape is 
strongly convex, and its colour black, with 
two dull-red bars on each wing-shell, viz. one 
at the base, and the other, smaller, at the 
t! P; ^ ’. s foui ! d alj out dunghills, Nc. 
HIS JOin, civil. History, in its sim- 
plest definition, implies the mere narration 
0 events and tacts; buf when placed in its 
tine dignity, it is something more than this 
it is philosophy “ teaching by examples.” 
1 he study ot it is more or less the employ- 
ment of alt persons of reading and education • 
and the composition of it was the earliest use 
that was made of letters, since the first 
poems were historical: it is calculated f or 
the use ot all ranks and all professions in life - 
and places the reader of its events as a spec- 
tatoi out of all hazards, who may reap wis- 
dom fiom the danger of others, and forete] 
to a certain extent, the future by the past. * 
the general uses of history are exhibited 
by lJr. J riestley under three heads : ,]. H e 
sd) s, history serves to amuse the imagination. 
