tions and manners. The illustration of Scripture has no concern with her form or colour, nor with the varieties of her spccies; these particulars, therefore, the plan of this work requires to be omitted. While the turtle retires to the tall trees of the forest, or the lonely summits of the mountains, the swallow, like the domestic dove, courts the presence of mankind, and builds her nest in their dwellings. To this trait of her character, the Psalmist alludes with great beauty and tenderness, in the sacred ode which he composed, as is generally thought, when he fled before his unnatural son Absalom: "Yea, the swallow hath found a nest for herself, where she may lay her young; thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God." The sparrow and the swallow seem to have been permitted to construct their nests in the houses near the altar of Jehovah; perhaps in the cloisters of the sanctuary, or in the buildings connected with that sacred edifice; for it cannot be reasonably supposed, that they would be permitted to nestle about the altar itself, which was conse. crated by a special ceremony to the service of Jehovah, and before which, the priets were continually serving. Driven from his home, and especially from the national altars, where all his delights were habitually placed, he envied these birds their enjoyments in the purlieus of the tabernacle, There they found for themselves a place of rest, and reared their young without interruption; while hẹ was compelled to wander far from the place of his repose, upon the mountains of Israel. More destitute than the birds of the air, he, who lately swayed the sceptre over a Bochart. Hieroz. lib. i, p. 59. de Nat. Animal. lib. i, cap. 52. * Psa. lxxxiv, 3. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. x, cap. 34. Ælian Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. vi, p. 466. numerous and affectionate people, had "not where to lay his head." But the afflicted monarch did not resign him self to fretfulness or despair; he encouraged himself in the Lord, and patiently waited for the return of happier days. The note of the swallow is quick and frequent, and seems to have something in it querulous and mournful. Many a classic bard has celebrated her "shrill and mourn ful song;" her bitter lamentations from the embowering thicket, or the top of lonely mountains. Thus Horace commemorates her woes: "Nidum ponit Ityn flebiliter gemens Infelix avis." Lib. iv, Ode 12. In this manner did Hezekiah complain under the mortal disease from which he was delivered by the immediate interposition of Jehovah: 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. "b The annual migration of the swallow has been familiarly known in every age, and perhaps in every region of the earth. Anacreon, in his thirty-third ode, addresses her in these words: 66. Συ μεν, φίλη χελίδων Ετησιν μολεσα, c. Friendly swallow, thou indeed coming annually, buildest thy nest in the summer, but in winter disappearest." And Aristotle remarks in the sober language of history: "Both the swallow and the turtle leave us, to spend the winter in other climes." The swallow, says Elian, announces the most delightful season of the she re a See Bochart. Hieroz. lib. i, p. 60. year; Isa. xxxviii, 14. i, 457, g mains in the northern latitude six months, the thrush and the turtle only three. But in Ethiopia, and other warm countries, according to Herodotus, she continues the whole year. Bochart admits it as a certain fact, that in some of the milder climates of Europe, the swallow ventures to remain during the winter; but loses her feathers, and sinks into a torpid state, in which she continues, till awakened by the genial influences of spring. But, when the prophet says, "the swallow knoweth the time of her coming," it is not necessary to understand it of all these birds without exception: it is sufficient if his assertion is verified by the migration of the species in general; and we are admonished by their example, of approaching winter, or opening spring. The Crane. The crane, in her character and mode of life, nearly resembles the stork. Like her, she is a bird of passage, and in the language of ancient prophecy, knows her appointed times. From her eager desire to avoid the effects of winter, to which she seems to be extremely sensible, she is supposed to retire to the remotest countries of the globe; or as it is expressed by Aristotle, from the coasts of Scythia to the sources of the Nile. Homer had long before entertained the same idea, which he thus expresses: Iliad, lib. iii, 1. 5. Κλαίγη ταιγε πέτονται επ' Ωκεανοιο ροάων. "These fly to the streams of the ocean;" that is, to the regions of the south, where the ancient poets placed the dwellings of the Pygmies. Hence the demand of Lucullus, addressed to Pompey, "Do I seem to you less wise d Ælian de Nat. Animal. lib. i, cap. 52. See also Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. vi, p. 469. e Lib. ii, cap. 22. f Hist. Anim, lib. viii, cap. 12. than the cranes and the storks, that I should not change my habitation with the seasons of the year ?" The ancients believed, that the native country of the crane is Thrace. Virgil places her about the river Strymon, which rolls its waters through that country. Elian states, that when the cranes are about to bid farewell to the fields and colds of Thrace, they assemble on the banks of the Hebrus, from whence they commence their journey to the Nile. But those which emigrate from the regions of Scythia, Virgil conducts across the country of Pontus. ❝ ubi frigidus annus Trans Pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis." Of They leave the wilds of Scythia about the middle of autumn, and return in the ensuing spring and summer. all the migratory birds, says Buffon, the crane undertakes and performs the boldest and most distant journeys. These birds, by the testimony of both ancient and modern writers, discover very great sagacity, both in arranging their bands, and in conducting their long and fatiguing march; but as the sacred writer directs our attention only to their sagacity in discerning the time appointed for their departure and return, the curious and interesting particulars mentioned by those authors, do not belong to the plan of this work. These statements completely justify the prophet, in proposing the emigration of the crane as an example of natural wisdom and sagacity: "Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and 14. 8 Æneid. lib. vi, 1. 312. i Nat. Hist. vol. vii, p. 277. j Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. x, cap. 30. h De Nat. Animal. lib. iii, cap. 13. Ælian de Nat. Animal. lib. iii, cap. Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. vii, p. 281. the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their com ing; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord." That nation whom God had chosen for his own peculiar inheritance, discovered less wisdom and prudence in the management of their affairs, than these irrational tribes. They soon forgot the mighty works which the Most High had wrought in their favour; they abandoned his service; they refused to listen to his warning voice; they resolutely turned aside to the worship of strange gods, and bowed down to a stock or a stone, till Jehovah, justly provoked by their enormities, delivered them into the hand of their enemies, and scattered them over the face of all the earth. No bird is more noisy than the crane; and none utters a harsher note. Homer compares the Trojans on their march to a troop of cranes, pursuing, with loud and discordant clamours, their annual journey. Τροις μεν κλαγγη τενοπη τισαν ορνιθες ως Ην τε περ κλαγγή γερανων πελει ερανόθι προσ Which Virgil imitates in these lines: "quales sub nubibus atris Lib. iii, 1, 2. Strymoniæ dant signa grues, atque æthera tranunt Eneid. lib. x, l. 264. The prophet, however, applies the verb () tsaphaph, which signifies to chatter, to the loud and screaming cry of this bird; for which Mr. Harmer professes himself unable to account. "The word tsaphtsaph," says he "translated chatter, appears to signify the low, melancholy, interrupted voice of the complaining sick, rather than a chattering noise, if we consult the other places in which it is used as for the chattering of the crane, it seems quite inexplicable." But the difficulty had not, perhaps, |