THE SWALLOW’S STONE. 283 
stones,’ and to examine them. I found them to be the 
hard polished calcareous opercula of some species of 
Turbo , and although their worn state precludes the idea 
of identifying the species, yet I am confident that they be¬ 
long to no European Turbo. The largest I have seen was 
three-eighths of an inch long, and one-fourth of an inch 
broad ; one side is flat, or nearly so, and the other is 
convex, more or less so in different specimens. Their 
peculiar shape enables one to push them under the eye¬ 
lid across the eyeball, and thus they remove any eye¬ 
lash or other foreign substance which may have got in 
one’s eye ;* further than this, they have no curing power : 
the peasants, however, believe they are omnipotent. The 
presence of these opercula in swallows’ nests is very 
curious,and leads one to suppose that they must have 
been brought there from some distant shore in the 
swallow’s stomach. If so, they must have inhabited the 
poor bird for a considerable time, and proved a great 
nuisance to it.” 
The tradition on this subject, current amongst the 
peasants in Brittany, is no doubt of some antiquity,! since 
* One would suppose that such a foreign substance as a “swallow-stone” in 
the eye would be much more inconvenient than the eyelash which it was destined 
to remove. 
f Curious, if true. Dr. Lebour does not say that he ever found such stones 
himself, nor does he vouch for their having been found by others in the nests. 
We have examined a great number of swallows’ nests without being able to 
discover anything of the kind. 
J Pliny makes mention of a “ swallow-stone,” but says nothing about its being 
found in the nest. On the contrary, he says it is found in the stomach of the 
