II I II 7iO II I S

middle and end of August. All the summer long is the swallow aa most instructive pattern of unwearied' industry and affection;fer from morning to night, while there is a family to be supported,she spends the whole in skimming close to the ground, anti ex-erting the most sudden turns and quick evolutions. Avenues, andlong walks under hedges, ami pasture-fields, and mown meadowswhere cattle graze, are her delight, especially if trees he inter-spersed ; because in such spots insects most abound. When afly is taken, a smart snap from her hill is heard, resembling thenoise at the shutting of a watch-case: but the motion of the man-dibles is too quick for the eye. The swallow, probably the malebird, is the excubitor to house-martins and other little birds, an-nouncing the approach of birds of prey. For as soon as an haw kappears, with a shrill alarming note he calls all the swallows andmartins about him ; who pursue in a body, and bullet and striketheir enemy till they have driven him from the village, darlingdown from above on his back, and rising in a perpendicular linein perfect security. This bird will sound also the alarm, andstrike at cats when they climb on the roofs of houses, or otherw iseapproach the nests. This species feeds much on little colooptera,as well as on gnats and flies ; and often settles on dug ground, orpaths, for gravel to grind and digest its food. Mr. White informsus, that before they depart, for some weefts, they all forsakehouses ami chimneys, and most in trees; and usually withdrawabout the beginning of October ; though some few stragglers mayhe seen at all times the first w eek in November. Mr. Pennantsays, that for a few days previous to their departure, they assemblein vast stocks on house-tops, churches, ami trees, from whencethey take their flight. They are supposed to take up their winter-quarters in Senegal and parts adjacent; and seem to possess inturn the whole of the old continent, being known from Norway tothe Cape of Good Hope on the one hand, and from Kamtschatka to India and Japan on the other. They are also found in all partsof North America , migrating N. and S. as witii us. See PlateLVIH.

II. Urbtca, the Martin, is inferior in sij£e to the chimney-swallow, and its tail much less forked. The head and upper partof the body, except the rump, are black glossed with blue: thebreast, bpliv, and rump, are white: .the feet are covered with ashort white ’down. This is the second of the swallow-kind thatappears in our country ; and of its manners arid (economy we havethe following curious account in the Rev. Mr. White’s NaturalHistory of Selborne. “ They begin to appear about the loth ofApril; and for some time they in general pay no attention to thebusiness of nidifleation : they play and sport about, either to re-cruit from the fatigue of their journey, if they do migrate at all;or else that their blood may recover its true tone and texture afterit has been so long benumbed by the severities of w inter. Aboutthe middle of May, if the weather he fine, the martin begins tothink in earnest of providing a mansion for its family. The crustor shell of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or loam ascomes most readily to hand, and as tempered and wrought toge-ther with little bits of broken straws to render it tough and tena-cious. As this bird often builds against a perpendicular wall with-out any projecting ledge under it, it requires its utmost efforts toget the foundation firmly fixed, so that it may safely carry on thesuperstructure. On this occasion the bird not only’dings with itsclaws, but partly supports itself by strongly inclining its tail againstthe wall, making that a fulcrum ; and thus steadied, it works andplasters the materials into the face of the brick or stone, Butthen, thgt this work may not, w hile it is soft and green, pull itselfdown by its own weight, the provident architect lias prudence andforbearance enough not to advance her work too fast; but bybuilding only in the morning, and by dedicating the rest of theday to food and amusement, gives it sufficient time to drv andharden. About half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer for aday. Tims careful workmen, when they build mud-walls (in-formed at first perhaps by this little bird,) raise but a moderatelayer at a time, and then desist; lest the work should becometop-heavy, ami so be ruined by its own weight. By this methodin about ten or twelve days is formed an hemispheric nest, with a :small aperture towards the top, strong, compact, and warm; andperfectly fitted for all the purposes for which it was intended.J5ut then nothing is more common than for the house-sparrow, assoon as the shell is finished, lo seize on it as its ow n, to eject the

owner, and to line it after its own manner. After so much labouris bestowed in erecting a mansion, as nature seldom works in vain,martins will breed on for several years together in the same nest,where it happens to he well sheltered and secure from the injuriesof the weather. The shell or crust of the nest is a sort of rusticwork, full of knobs and protuberances on the outside : nor is theinside of those that I have examined smoothed with any exactnessat all ; hut it is rendered soft and warm, and lit for incubation, hya lining of small straws, grasses, and feathers; and sometimes bya heel of moss interwoven with wool. As> soon as the young areable to shift for themselves, the dams immediately turn theirthoughts to the business of a second brood : while the first flight,shaken off and rejected by their nurses, congregate in great flocks,and aro the birds that are seen clustering and liuvering, on sunnymornings and evenings, round lowers and steeples, and on theroofs ot churches and houses. These congregatings usually beginto take place about the first week in August; and therefore wemay conclude that by that time the first flight is pretty well over.The young of this species do not quit their abodes all together;but the more forward birds get abroad some days before the rest.These approaching the caves of buildings, and playing about be-fore them, make people think that several old ones attend one nest.They are often capricious in fixing on a nesting-place, beginningmany edifices, and leaving them unfinished ; hut when once anest is completed in a sheltered place, it serves for several seasons.Those which breed in a ready-finished house, get the start inhatching, of I hose tiiat build new, by ten days or a fortnight.These industrious artificers are at their labours in the long daysbefore four in the morning; when they fix their materials, theyplaster them on with their chins, moving their heads with a quickvibratory motion. They dip and wash as they ily sometimes inhot weaiher, but not so’often as swallows. Martins love to fre-quent towns, especially if there are great lakes and rivers at hand.They are by far the least agile of the British hirundiucs; theirwings and tails are short, ami therefore they are not capable ofsuch surprising turns, and quick and glancing evolutions, asthoswallow. Accordingly, they make use of a placid easy motion,in a middle region of the air, seldom mounting to any greatheight, and never swee ping long together over the surface of theground or wafer. Thev do not wander far for food; but affectsheltered districts, over some lake, or under some hanging wood,or in some hollow vale, especially in windy weather. Theybreed the latest of all the swallow-kind ; in 1772, they had nest-lings on to October the 21st, and are never without young as lateas Michaelmas, As the summer declines, the congregating flocksincrease in numbers daily, by the constant accession of the secondbroods ; till at last they swarm in myriads upon myriads rounddie villages on the Thames, darkening the face of the sky as theyfrequent the aits of that river, where they roo.-t, They retire, thehulk of them 1 mean, in vast flocks together about the beginningof October: hut have appeared of late years in a considerableflight in this neighbourhood, for one day or two, as late as No-vember the 3d and (3th, after they were supposed to have beengone for more than a fortnight. They therefore withdraw, withus, the latest of any species. Unless these birds are very short-lived indeed,, or unless they do not return to the district wherethey are bred, they must undergo vast devastations somehow, andsomewhere ; for the birds that return yearly bear no maimer ofproportion to the birds that retire.” See Plate l.Vill.

IHRXHOL.M EN, or II EKTZHOLM, three small islandsof Denmark , in the Caltegute, Lou. 10. 24, E. Lat, £7,31. N.

UISINGEN, an island near the coast of Sweden , at die mouthof the Gotha, l(i miles long and G broad, containing seven parishes,Lon. 11. 48. E. Lat. 57. 4 j. N.

JllSPA, in zoology, a genus of insects of the colooptera order.Antenna: fusiform, growing gradually larger from each extremilytowards the middle, situated between the eyes ; thorax and elytracovered with protuberances or spires. There are twenty-six spe-cies, very few of which are natives of Europe .

II. Atpea, found in Britain , is all over of a deep " ’ ;’dblack, and has the upper part of its body entirely covered withlong and strong spires, winch render it bristly like the shell of achesnut, ijee Plate I.XX.YI. K bears its antenna: upright be-fore it.

lUSPAUK,