hedges, and pafiure-fieltls, and mown meadowy where cattle graze,
are her delight, efpecially if there are trees interfperfed j beeaufe
in fueh-fpots infects- moft abound. When a fly is taken a fmart
fnap from her bill is heard, refmnbliijg the nail# at the: {hutting
of a,watch-caff ; bsf the motion of the mandibles are too quick
for the eye.
The (wallow,. probably the male bird, is th® exeuiitar to houfe-
martins, and other-little birds, announcing the approach of: birds
of prey. For as fo©n as an hawk appears* with alhrili alarming
note he- calls all the fwallows and martins about him; who ptirfue
in a body, and buffet and ftrike their enemy till they have driven
him from the village, darting down from above on his back, and
riling in a perpendicular line in perfecft fecurity. This’ bird alfi*
will found the alarm, and ftrike at cats when they climb on the
roofs o f houfes, or otberwife approach the nefts. Each (pecks of
hiwpdo drinks as it flies along, lipping the furface of the water 5
but the (wallow alpne, in general, imjhes on the wing, by dropping
into a pool for many times together : in very hot weather houfe-
martins and bank-martins dip and wafh a little.
The fwallow is a delicate fongfter, and in foft funny weather
fings both perching and flying; on trees in a kind o f concert, and
OP chimney tops: is alfo a bold flyer, ranging to diftant downs and
commons even in windy weather, which the. other fpecies feem
much to diflike; nay, even frequenting, expofed fea-port- towns,
and making little excurfions over the fait water. Horfemen on
wide downs are often clofely attended by a little party of fwallows
for miles together, which plays before and behind them; fweeping
around, and collecting all the fculking infedts that are roufed by
the trampling of the horfes feet: when the wind blows hard*
without this expedient, they are often, forced to-fettle to pick up
their lurking prey. .. Xhis
This fpecies feeds much on little coleoptettt, as well as on gnats
and flies; and often fettles on dug ground, or paths, for gravels
to grind and digeft it’s food. Before they depart, for fome weeks,
to a bird, they forfake hetrfes and chimnies, and rooft in trees;
and ufually. withdraw about the beginning of Otlobzr; though
fome few ftragglers may appear oh at times till the fifft week in
November.
Some few pairs haunt the new and open ftreets of London next
the fields, but do not enter, like the houfe-martin, the clofe and
crowded parts of the city.
Both male and female are diftinguiflied from their congeners by
the length and forkednefs of their tails. They are undoubtedly
the moft nimble of all the fpecies : and when the male purfues the
female in amorous chafe, they then go beyond their ufual fpeed,
and exert a rapidity almoft too quick for the eye to follow.
After this circumftantial detail of the life and difeerning a-rofyn
of the fwallow, I (hall add, for your farther amufement, an anecdote
or two not much in favour of her fagacity:—*■
A certain fwallow built for two years together on the handles of
a pair of garden-drears, that were ftuck up againft the boards in an
out-houfe, and therefore mnft have her neft fpoiled whenever that
implement was wanted: and, what is ftranger ftill, another bird
of the fame fpecies built it’s neft on the wings and body of a-n owl
that happened by accident to hang dead and. dry from the rafter
of a barn. This owl, with the neft on it’s wings, and with eggs
in the neft, was brought as a CUriofity worthy the moft elegant
private mufeum in GnCCt-BAtam. The oWlthf, Frock With die
oddity of the fight, furniflied the bringer wfth a laTgg (hell, or
conch, defiring him to fix it juft where th| owl hung : the per-
fan did as he was ordered, and the Mowing year a pair, pro-
Z 2 bahly