180 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

and had just passed the threshold of the house-door, and
was in the act of stroking its head with my fingers, when,
upon the swifts screaming in the air, it suddenly sprang out
of my hand, and flew low round the carriage drive, as it had
been accustomed to fly round the room, and passing over my
head as it came round, it rose high in the air to join the
wild swifts, and was never seen by us again. Three days
after, the swifts had all departed, and I make little doubt
that in less than a week after its vain attempts to surmount
Johnson’s dictionary, my young friend was flying sky-high
in the heart of Africa.” The poor little bird had vainly en-
deavoured to climb some quarto volumes, by which it was
penned in.

There are many foreign varieties of this family, both in
the New and Old Worlds.

The word translated “swallow” in the 84th Psalm, and
again in Proverbs xxvi., denotes freedom and deliverance ;
and as it evidently points to some bird, it probably refers
to the free manner in which the swallow flies. . In the 9th
chapter of Jeremiah this bird is again mentioned, and re-
ference made to its migratory habits, which must have been
well known, even at that time, and is referred to in many
parts of the Bible: “ Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth