240 Birds. 
did so ; and in the following year a pair of Swallows, 
probably the same, built their nest in the shell and laid 
eggs. 
Modern poets have not been unmindful of the Swal- 
lows ; and our immortal Shakspeare mentions the Martin, 
in Macbeth, in the following manner : 
" This guest of summer, 
The temple-haunting Martlet, does approve, 
By his loved mansionry, that the Heaven's 
Breath smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, 
Buttress, nor coigne of 'vantage, hut this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 
The air is delicate." 
" The Swallow," writes Sir Humphry Davy, " is one 
of my favourite birds, and a rival of the nightingale, for 
he cheers my sense of seeing as much as the other does 
my sense of hearing. He is the glad prophet of the year, 
the harbinger of the best season — he lives a life of enjoy- 
ment amongst the liveliest forms of nature— winter is 
unknown to him ; and he leaves the green meadows of 
England in autumn for the myrrh and orange groves of 
Italy, and for the palms of Africa ; he has always objects 
of pursuit, and his success is secure. Even the beings 
selected for his prey are poetical, beautiful, and transient. 
The ephemerae are saved by his means from a slow and 
lingering death in the evening, and killed in a moment 
when they have known nothing but pleasure. Pie is the 
constant destroyer of insects, the friend of man, and may 
be regarded as a sacred bird. His instinct, which gives 
him his appointed season, and teaches him when and 
where to move, may be regarded as flowing from a divine 
source ; and he belongs to the oracles of nature, which 
speak the awful and intelligible language of a present 
Deity." 
The Chimney Swallow is, on the head, neck, back, and 
rump, of a shining black colour, with purple gloss and 
sometimes with a blue shade ; the throat and neck are of 
the same colour; the breast and belly are white, with a dash 
of red. The tail is forked, and consists of twelve feathers. 
