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the clofe and crowded parts of the city. Both male 
and female are diftingiiifhed from their congeners by 
the length and forkednefs of their tails. They are un- 
doubtedly the moil nimble of all the fpecies ; and when 
the male purfues the female in amorous chace, they then 
go beyond their ufual fpeed, and exert a rapidity almoil 
too quick for the eye to follow. 
After this circumilantial detail of the life and difcern- 
ing rof7>?.of the fwallow, I ihall add for your farther 
amufement, an anecdote or two not much in favour of 
her fagacity. A certain fwallow built for two years 
together on the handles of a pair of garden-fheers, that 
were iluck up againft the boards in an out-houfe ; and, 
what is ilranger ilill, another bird of the fame fpecies 
built its nefl on the wings and body of an owl that hap- 
pened by accident to hang dead and dry from the rafter 
of a barn. This owl, with the neft on its wings, and 
with eggs in the neft, was brought as a curioftty worthy 
the moft elegant private mufeum in Great Britain. The 
owner, ftruck with the oddity of the light, furnifhed the 
bringer with a large ftiell or conch, deliring him to fix 
it juft where the owl hung. The perfon did as he was 
ordered; and the following year a pair, probably the 
fame pair, built their neft in the conch, and laid their 
eggs. The owl and the conch make a ftrange grotefque 
appearance, and are not the leaft curious fpecimens in 
that wonderful colle6lion of art and nature. 
Thus is inftin(5l in animals, taken the leaft out of its 
way, an undiftinguUhing, limited faculty, and blind to 
Vox.. LXV. O o every 
