SWALLOW. 
501 
labours of the husbandman. Since, then, swallows 
are guardians of our corn, they should every where 
be protected by the same popular veneration which 
in Egypt defends the ibis, and the stork in Hol- 
land. We more frequently hear of unproductive 
harvests on the Continent than in this country ; 
and it is well known that swallows are caught and 
sold for food in the markets of France, Spain, and 
Italy. When this practice has been very general 
and successful, I have little doubt that it has at 
times contributed to the scarcity of corn. In 
England we are not driven to such resources to fur- 
o 
nish our tables. But what apology can be made 
for those, and many there are whose education 
and rank should have taught them more inno- 
cent amusements, who wantonly murder swallows 
under the idle pretence of improving their skill in 
shooting game ? Besides the cruelty of starving 
whole nests by killing the dam, they who follow 
this barbarous diversion would do well to reflect, 
that by every swallow they kill they assist the 
effects of blasts, mildews, and vermin, in causing 
a scarcity of bread. Every lord of the manor should 
restrain his gamekeeper from this execrable prac- 
tice ; nor should he permit any person to sport on 
his lands that does not refrain from it. For my 
part, I am not ashamed to own, that I have tempted 
martins to build round my house, by fixing scallop 
shells in places convenient for their 4 pendent beds 
and procreant cradles and have been much pleased 
in observing with what caution the little aichitect 
