motion, and always fly with their mouths open. Their feet are short and slender, and scarcely capable even of bearing the weight of their bodies; hence it is evident that they were designed to be chiefly on the wing. The length of tail with which they are furnished, serves as a rudder; hence they are able to turn with the most rapid motion, and their agility is equal to their swiftness. The upper part of the plumage is black glossed with a rich purple, the lower part of a dingy white; the tail, black and forked. Their note is a slight twittering, and they seldom exert it except when on the wing.

They feed chiefly on insects; and as insects are attracted abroad by the sun's genial ray, or driven to their retreats on the approach of foul weather, the flight of the swallow is directed accordingly. In fine weather she soars aloft, to pursue the bolder flights of her prey; as they retreat to the earth, she skims near the surface: hence the low flight of the swallow is a proverbial intimation of the approach of rain.

The swallow is a bird of passage. It leaves our climate in September, and returns not till the beginning of summer. When the insect tribes are roused from their annual torpidity, and venture into the air, the swallows, too, are seen returning from their long migration at first only here and there one is seen occasionally, and then retreating, and but feeble and slow in flight; as the weather becomes more settled, and food more abundant, these birds are

seen returning in great numbers; hence is a common saying, "One swallow does not make summer."

When the summer is fairly begun, and the supply of food is abundant, and not until then, do these birds begin preparations for rearing a progeny; and in this respect they furnish an example of prudence worthy the imitation of the human race, who too often enter on the marriage state quite unqualified for its duties, and unprepared to meet its expenses.

Swallows build their nests with great care and industry, especially the common swallow, which builds it on the top of chimneys; martins stick theirs to the eaves of houses: both are built of clay or mud, mixed with small straws and hair; the whole well tempered with the bill, moistened with water, and made sufficiently strong to bear the weight of the whole family, and to resist the beating tempest. It is farther secured by long grass and fibres, and smoothly lined within with goose feathers, which are ever the warmest and the neatest. The martin covers its nest at top, and has a door at which to enter; the house swallow leaves hers entirely open; another species, the goatsucker, builds upon the bare ground.

The swallow usually lays five or six eggs, of a white colour speckled with red; the mother feeds the young very plentifully, and as they are soon able to quit the nest, she sometimes rears a second brood.

In a long dry summer, she succeeds with both her families; but when the spring has been severe, and the nest perhaps robbed by thoughtless boys at the beginning of the season, she often has a difficulty in rearing even one brood-especially if the damps and chills of autumn should come on early.

About the latter end of September the swallows leave us; for a few days previous to their departure, they assemble in vast flocks on house-tops, as if deliberating on the fatiguing journey that lies before them; and indeed theirs is no slight undertaking, as their flight is directed to Congo, Senegal, and along the whole Morocco shore. There are some, however, left behind in this general expedition, and that do not depart till eight or ten days after the rest. These are chiefly the latter weakly broods, which are not yet in a condition to set out, and often being compelled to stay, perish by the first cold weather that comes; the tender parents remaining also, and sharing the fate of their unfledged offspring.

It has been observed, that those that migrate, are first seen in Africa about the beginning of October; hence it appears that they have performed their fatiguing journey in the space of seven or eight days. They are sometimes seen, when interrupted by contrary winds, wavering in their course far off at sea, and lighting upon whatever ship they find in their passage; they then seem spent with famine and fatigue; yet still they boldly

venture, when refreshed by a few hours' rest, to renew their flight, and continue the course which they had been steering before.-The annual migration of the swallow has been noticed in every age, and perhaps in every region of the earth; and poets and moralists have made it an emblem of the inconstancy of many friends, who profess great attachment to persons while in a state of prosperity, but desert and disown them when assailed by adversity and poverty; such have justly been called

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mer friends," and their conduct has given rise to the well-known adage, which every day's observation and experience of human nature fully confirm. "Prosperity gains friends, and adversity tries them."

The swallow is mentioned only four times in scripture, each passage having reference to a distinct particular in its natural history.

1. Prov. xxvi. 2. "As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come." What can be more harmless or less terrific, than the swallow's flying over our heads? Just as harmless and ineffectual are the malicious imprecations of the wicked against the just.

2. The note of the swallow is quick and frequent, and has in it something querulous and mournful.Hezekiah uses it, among other figures, to express the anguish of his soul, and the bitterness of his lamentations, when the afflicting hand of God was sore upon him."Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes fail with

looking upwards: O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me," Isa. xxxviii. 14.

3. To the practice of the swallow, to build in and about the dwellings of mankind, the Psalmist has a beautiful and tender allusion in the 84th Psalm. This sacred ode is expressive of the most ardent attachment to the house of God, and the most earnest desires after its sacred privileges, of which the pious Psalmist was at that time deprived. It is generally thought to have been composed when he fled before his unnatural son Absalom. In his state of exile and destitution, he thought of the house of his God, and, remembering the nests of the sparrows and swallows, which they were permitted to construct in the buildings connected with the tabernacle, he envied even those birds the privileges of which he was destitute, and of which they were insensible, and affectingly exclaimed, "Yea, the swallow hath found a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God," Psa. lxxxiv. 3. But the afflicted monarch did not resign himself to fretfulness or despair. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God, and, though his present situation was painful, and his prospects dreary, he dwelt with pleasure on the unfailing and unerring goodness of God to all his people, and pleaded for the returning displays of his mercy. "O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob; behold, O God our Shield, and look upon the face