500 
SWALLOW. 
ing the arrival of their parents with food : here 
they remain for a few days, till they gain sufficient 
strength to reach some leafless bough, where, seated 
in a row, they receive alternately their share of 
flies. Their power to provide for themselves does 
not commence with their ability to fly ; as they are 
still dependent upon their parents for some time 
after they have taken to wing, and may be seen 
playing about the place where the dams are watch- 
ing for flies, which they receive with a fluttering 
motion and a short quick expressive note. When 
the swallows are upon the wing, they make a sharp 
noise with their bill every time they catch a fly : 
this noise is not unlike the shutting of a watch- 
case. 
The activity of swallows in clearing the air of in- 
sects make them of singular service to us ; and we 
should be very much annoyed by their rapid in- 
crease, if the wisdom of Providence had not di- 
rected every animal to seek its particular prey, 
and thus prevent the undue multiplication of any 
one species. In the Gentleman’s Magazine the use 
they are of to us in this respect is properly no- 
ticed. “ By the myriads of insects,” says the 
writer, u which every single brood of swallows de- 
stroy in the course of a summer, these birds defend 
us in a great measure from the personal and do- 
mestic annoyance of flies and gnats ; and, what is of 
infinitely more consequence, they keep down the 
numbers of minute enemies, which, either in the 
grub or winged state, would otherwise prey on the 
