The architecture of birds / [Anon].

  • James Rennie
Date:
[1831]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The architecture of birds / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    manner trace the art of mining to a rabit-burrow, or a fox-earth, or, to come to our immediate subject, to the mined holes of the bank-swallow, or sand-martin, (Hirundo riparia). These constructions could not fail to strike the most indifferent observer the first time they were seen. Yet, simple as such holes appear, they have given rise, as we shall afterwards see, to several very singular misconceptions, not only among the vulgar, but among naturalists of distin- guished reputation.* We cannot well conceive how it happened that White of Selborne, usually so accurate in his facts, should have committed so many mistakes respecting the bank-swallow. These mistakes are the more unfortunate, as they have been implicitly copied by almost every succeeding writer. ‘ Perseverance,’ says White, ‘will accomplish anything; though at first one would be disinclined to believe that this weak bird, with her soft and tender bill and claws, should ever be able to bore the stubborn sand-bank, without entirely disabling herself; yet with these feeble instru- ments have I seen a pair of them make great despatch; and could remark how much they had scooped that day, by the fresh sand which ran down the bank, and was of a different colour from that which lay loose and bleached in the sun.’ Whoever, on the contrary, looks at the bill and claws of the bird, cannot fail to be convinced, that so far from being ‘soft and tender’ they are more than commonly hard and sharp, and_ admirably adapted for digging. The bill, we admit, is small, _ but its very shortness adds to its strength, as it sud- denly tapers to a point like a sailor’s marlin-spike, or rather like the points of a pair of fine compasses * See Pliny’s account of the swallow embankment on the Nile, in our chapter upon ‘ Mason Birds.’ t+ Nat. Hist. Selborne, 1, 299, ed. 1825.
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