Swaddling

“ That walking, swimming, and flying represent integral parts of the same problem is proved by the fact that most quadrupeds swim as well as walk, and some even fly; while many marine animals walk as well as swim, and birds and insects walk, swim, and fly indiscriminately. When the land animals, properly so called, are in the habit of taking to the water or the air; or the inhabitants of the water are constantly taking to the land or the air; or the insects and birds which are more peculiarly organized for flight, spend much of their time on the land and in the water ”

“ Every new yell of the swamp pre-emptioners, made him climb a limb higher, and each progression upwards appeared to introduce him to a fresh and hungrier company of mosquitoes—the trees in the swamp were like the dwellings in Paris, their highest tenants were the most needy. Day at length broke, and our harassed candidate, almost exhausted, clambered from his exalted position. His frightened but unscathed steed uttered a neigh of welcome as he bestrode him, and giving loose to the rein he committed his escape to the animal's sagacity, while he aided his efforts by a devout supplication. ”

“ In seas and lakes and swampy pools strange fishes swam, up from the salt waters odd reptiles crawled to sun themselves upon the sandy shore or make their way through the dense jungles of the swamps, and out where the ocean waves were dashing, fierce monsters of the sea darted on their prey, or churned the water into foam in savage fights with each other. ”

“ The members of this group are met with in most parts of the globe, migrating according to the change of seasons, or when their supply of food falls short. Swamps, shallow rivers, and pools are their favourite haunts, and in these they quietly stand, with their necks drawn down between their shoulders, watching the approach of a fish, upon which they suddenly dart, and seizing it in the beak, swallow it in an instant. ”

“ Particularly slender and graceful, these long-winged birds may usually be distinguished by their irregular or hovering flight, and are known as Sea-swallows; while their method of beating up and down maritime streams or shallows, singly or in pairs, in search of fish, is quite peculiar to themselves. At such times they make constant plunges into the water, often completely immersing their bodies, or occasionally discontinue their operations to engage in trivial and seemingly amicable quarrels. ”

“ Small crows and hundreds of swallows are on eager wing, darting into the smoke and out again, seizing fugitive flies. Scores of insects, in their haste to escape from the fire, jump into the river, and the active fish enjoy a rare feast. ”

“ Along the face of such crumbling rocks, swallows' nests are clustered, thick as cities, and eagles and deer do not disdain their summits. One morning, out in the boat along the base of these rocks, it was amusing, and affecting too, to see these swallows put their heads out to look at us. There was something very hospitable about it, as if man had never shown himself a tyrant near them. What a morning that was! Every sight is worth twice as much by the early morning light. ”

“ The swallow-plovers go farther. They become so excited that they flutter about on the sand, with dragging wings and limping legs, as if badly wounded. Sometimes they perform somersaults in their intense excitement. ”

“ The fisherman, taking sight over the calm surface, discovers its snout projecting above the water, at the distance of many rods, and easily secures his prey through its unwillingness to disturb the water by swimming hastily away, for, gradually drawing its head under, it remains resting on some limb or clump of grass. ”

“ The flight of the swallow is often low, but distinguished by great rapidity, and sudden turns and evolutions, executed as if by magic. Over fields and meadows, and the surface of pools and sheets of water, all the day may this fleet, unwearied bird be seen, skimming along, and describing, in its oft repeated circuit, the most intricate mazes. The surface of the water is indeed its delight ”

“ The rather unsteady motion of his legs, balancing of the tail, and sudden jerking of the head suggest an aquatic bird rather than a bird of the woods. But to really know either man or beast, you must follow him to his home, and if you have pluck enough to brave the swamp and the almost impenetrable tangle of undergrowth where the water thrush chooses to nest, there "In the swamp in secluded recesses, a shy and hidden bird is warbling a song;" ”

“ When the extremities are made to move in a horizontal or slightly downward direction, they at once propel and support the body. When, however, they are made to act in an upward direction, as in diving, they submerge the body. This shows that the movements of the swimming surfaces may, according to their direction, either augment or destroy buoyancy. The swimming surfaces enable the seal, sea-bear, otter, ornithorhynchus, bird, etc., to disappear from and regain the surface of the water. Similar remarks may be made of the whale, dugong, manatee, and fish. ”

“ Do you even know distinctly from each other,— (for that is the real naturalist's business; instead of confounding them with each other) ,—do you know distinctly the five great species of this familiar bird?—the swallow, the house-martin, the sand-martin, the swift, and the Alpine swift?—or can you so much as answer the first question which would suggest itself to any careful observer of the form of its most familiar species,—yet which I do not find proposed, far less answered, in any scientific book,—namely, why a swallow has a swallow-tail? ”

“ Wild swans occasionally sailed in all their majesty on its waters, while plover of every length of limb and bill, and every species of plaintive cry, waded round its margin, or swept in clouds over the neighbouring swamps. ”

“ From upright fishes, swimming, probably, close to the surface of the sea, they became dwellers on its bottom, and, in order to hide themselves more effectually from their enemies or their prey, they acquired the habit of swimming with one side next to the ground, and of partially or wholly burying themselves in the mud, always, however, with one side down. ”

“ We are content to know that the swallow skims the pool with a swiftness due to a motion of wing too rapid to be detected in its separate beats by the acutest eye, and that the grass does grow, and at times with marvellous rapidity, albeit the stir and tumult of its upward rush is inaudible to human ears. ”

“ You must fish for him with a small red worm; and if you bait the ground with earth, it is excellent.
There is also a BLEAK or fresh-water Sprat; a fish that is ever in motion, and therefore called by some the river-swallow; for just as you shall observe the swallow to be, most evenings in summer, ever in motion, making short and quick turns when he flies to catch flies, in the air, by which he lives; so does the Bleak at the top of the water. ”

“ Suppose you had never seen a swallow; but that its general habit of life had been described to you, and you had been asked, how you thought such a bird would build its nest. A creature, observe, whose life is to be passed in the air; whose beak and throat are shaped with the fineness of a net for the catching of gnats; and whose feet, in the most perfect of the species, are so feeble that it is called the Footless Swallow, and cannot stand a moment on the ground with comfort. Of all land birds, the one that has least to do with the earth ”

“ The post seldom lacked its occupant, a baby swallow with head up, looking eagerly into the flock above him. This isolated youngling I made my special study. Sometimes on the approach of a grown up bird, he lifted his wings and opened his mouth, petitioning for, and plainly expecting food. At other times he paid not the least attention to a swallow passing over him, but sat composed and silent, though watchful, apparently for the right one to come in sight. ”

“ Whether it be fishing in deep water amid rolling billows, or engaged in eluding its foes, it disappears beneath the surface so suddenly, remains so long in the water, and rises at so extraordinary a distance, often in a direction quite the reverse of that supposed to be followed by it, that your eyes become wearied in searching for it, and you renounce the wish of procuring it out of sheer vexation. ”

“ When swimming he presents a curious appearance: his body, as if too heavy for the element it floats in, sinks like a waterlogged boat, until the flat back is on a level with the surface. When alarmed, he sinks his body deeper and deeper at will, until the head and long neck alone appear, looking like the head and neck of a serpent swimming with body submerged. ”

“ Swallows and sparrows not only build their nests on my roof, but even enter my rooms without concern—one swallow has actually built its nest in the ceiling of the bathroom—and the weasel purloins fish under my very eyes without any scruples of conscience. ”

“ You may frequently notice the swallow, on the borders of a limpid stream, moistening in the water a little bit of earth which he holds in his beak, and with this he builds his habitation; and, though the outside of its nest is formed of hard and durable materials, the inside is lined with the softest and warmest. There are even some birds, who pull off their own feathers to make up a comfortable bed, wherein to secure their young from every inclemency of the elements. ”

“ You will observe, however, that it remains an open question whether this fear of sea may not be, in the swallow, like ours of the desert. The commissariat department is a serious one for birds that eat a thousand flies a day when just out of the egg; and it is possible that the weariness of swallows at sea may depend much more on fasting than flying. ”

“ After we move the first bird, it is follow my leader! And a wild leader he is. Flushed in the birches, he makes straight for the swamp. The swamp it is, then, and down we go after him, and in we go—ugh! how shivery the first plunge is—straight to the puddly heart of it, carefully keeping our direction. We go fast at first, then, when we have nearly covered the distance a partridge usually flies, we begin to slow down, holding back the too eager dog, listening for the snap of a twig or the sound of wings, gripping our guns tighter at every blue jay or robin that flicks across our path. ”

“ Should one of the little fishlings stray beyond the prescribed bounds, the watchful parent darts after it, and in an instant his jaws close over the wanderer apparently for ever, but in fact only for a time, for swimming quickly back the old fish puffs out the straggler into its nest lively and uninjured. ”

“ After a few moments they suspend themselves in mid-water, hovering for many seconds in the same spot, scarcely moving a hair's breadth either way, but waving their large circular swimming-fins rapidly and regularly up and down, just like the wings of an insect. ”

“ When a flock alights on the water, the individuals soon scatter and swim about rapidly and independently in zigzag lines or circles, jabbing their bills into the water in a nervous and excited manner. I have never seen them dive and doubt if they can do so, as they seem to have great difficulty in getting under water, even to bathe. They frequently alight on floating masses of seaweed, where they run about and feed with all the nervous activity of small sandpipers on a mud flat. ”

“ Every fact which occurs in the bed, on the banks, or in the air over it; the fishes, and their spawning and nests, their manners, their food; the shad-flies which fill the air on a certain evening once a year, and which are snapped at by the fishes so ravenously that many of these die of repletion; the conical heaps of small stones on the river-shallows, one of which heaps will sometimes overfill a cart,—these heaps the huge nests of small fishes; the birds which frequent the stream, heron, duck, sheldrake, loon, osprey; the snake, musk-rat, otter, woodchuck, and fox, on the banks ”

“ In flight it is eminently wandering; it circles round and round, or describes a figure of eight, at a varying elevation above the water, in quest of herrings, pilchards, or other fish whose habit is to swim near the surface. When it has discovered a prey, it suddenly arrests its flight, partially closes its wings, and descends head foremost with a force sufficient to make a jet d'eau visible two or three miles off, and to carry itself many feet downwards. When successful, it brings its prize to the surface, and devours it without troubling itself about mastication. ”

“ Provided with a fine fishing-line, and such insects as I knew were relished by this fish, I reached a sand-bar, covered by about one foot of water, where I had previously seen many deposits. Approaching the nearest to the shore with great care, I baited my hook with a living ground-worm, the greater part of which was left at liberty to writhe as it pleased, and throwing the line up the stream, managed it so that at last it passed over the border of the nest, where I allowed it to remain on the bottom. ”

“ He frequently flies high over the large rivers and lakes, sailing and dashing about in pursuit of insects. Again, gliding down towards the water, he drinks in the manner of various species of Swallow. When the weather is very warm, he plunges repeatedly into the water, alights after each plunge on the low branch of a tree close by, shakes off the water and plumes himself, when, perceiving some individuals of his tribe passing high over head, he ascends to overtake them, and bidding adieu to the country, proceeds towards a warmer region. ”