584 
BIRD-LIFE. 
with pleasure, and their departure with regret. The 
Swallow is to us what the Sacred Ibis was to the ancient 
Egyptians—the harbinger of the rich and fruitful season. 
The Swallow announces the awakening of all Nature to 
life and energy, after the long, joyless winter has passed 
away: it gives promise of better days; and when it takes 
its departure our hearts are all saddened, for we know 
that dreariness and cold must soon follow, and that with 
it the lovely summer days have fled. Anacreon sings its 
arrival and departure thus :— 
“ Once in each revolving year, 
Gentle bird ! we find thee here. 
When Nature wears her summer-vest, 
Thou com’st to weave thy simple nest; 
But when the chilling winter lowers, 
Again thou seek’st the genial bowers 
Of Memphis, or the shores of Nile, 
Where sunny hours of verdure smile.” 
Moose’s Translation Ode 24. 
The more modern poets do not prize it less, and, like 
the ancients, look upon it as a bird of promise :— 
“ This guest of summer, 
The temple-haunting martlet, doth approve 
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath 
Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, 
Buttress nor coigne of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendant bed, and procreant cradle : 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 
The air is delicate.” 
Macbeth, Act I. Sc. G. 
Thus says Shakespeare, and our German authors have 
sung the Swallow’s praises in innumerable poems. Such 
universal regard, so great a love as this, cannot assuredly 
emanate from chance alone, but has a deep meaning, 
some real foundation. The latter we cannot avoid 
