48 
SWALLOWS. 
August ; every breeze from which sweeps over the 
land, chilling the insects and driving them to shelter ; 
and when this happens, the Swallows suffer severely, 
and many of their young perish. Whereas, in the 
interior of the same country, beyond the reach of 
these ice-blasts, they run no risks, and rear their 
broods without difficulty. 
The quantity of insects devoured by Swallows is 
far greater than most people imagine. On picking 
up a Swift that had been shot, a number of minute 
flies or beetles, some mutilated, and others scarcely 
injured, were observed crawling out of the bird's 
mouth; the throat and pouch seemed absolutely 
stuffed with them, and as many were collected, as 
when pressed close could conveniently be contained 
in the bowl of an ordinary table-spoon. If nearly 
examined, a great proportion of these minute insects 
will be found of one particular sort; and it is a 
curious fact, that by far the greater part, indeed we 
may say, from repeated examination, all of those 
which suddenly fly into our eyes when walking or 
riding, are of the same genus ( Staphylinus ), if not 
the same species ( Staphylinus brachypterus ), de- 
voured by Swallows. Most persons may have noticed, 
in the Summer season, a disagreeable looking insect, 
running rather briskly across a sand or gravel walk, 
which, if touched or disturbed, immediately throws 
up its tail, from whence project two formidable-look- 
ing spines ; it appears to have no wings, but it is 
provided, nevertheless with a pair, most beautifully 
folded up beneath two little short wing-cases ; still, 
however, these wings are disproportioned to the size 
of the insect, and we may therefore reasonably con- 
