cleansing
power. You sometimes hear it said of a humane person that they would
not kill a fly: from 700 to 1,000 flies a day are a moderate allowance
for a baby swallow.

44. Perhaps, as I say this, it may occur to some of you to think, for
the first time, of the reason of the bird's name. For it is very
interesting, as a piece of language study, to consider the different
power on our minds,--nay, the different sweetness to the ear,--which,
from association, these same two syllables receive, when we read them
as a noun, or as a verb. Also, the word is a curious instance of the
traps which are continually open for rash etymologists. At first,
nothing would appear more natural than that the name should have been
given to the bird from its reckless function of devouring. But if you
look to your Johnson, you will find, to your better satisfaction, that
the name means "bird of porticos," or porches, from the Gothic "swale;"
"subdivale,"--so that he goes back in thought as far as Virgil's, "Et
nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum, stagna sonat." Notice, in
passing, how a simile of Virgil's, or any other great master's, will
probably tell in two or more ways at once. Juturna is compared to the
swallow, not merely as winding and turning swiftly in her chariot, but
as being a water-nymph by birth,--"Stagnis quae, fluminibusque sonoris,
praesidet." How many different creatures in one the swallow is by
birth, as a Virgilian simile is many thoughts in one, it would take
many more lectures than one to show you clearly; but I will indicate
them with such rough sketch as is possible.

45. It belongs, as most of you know, to a family of birds called
Fissirostres, or, literally, split-beaks. Split heads would be a better
term, for it is the enormous width of mouth and power of gaping which
the epithet is meant to express. A dull sermon, for instance, makes
half the congregation "fissirostres." The bird, however, is most
vigilant when its mouth is widest, for it opens as a net to catch
whatever comes in its way,--hence the French, giving the whole family
the more literal name, "Gobble-fly"--Gobe-mouche, extend the term to
the open-mouthed and too acceptant appearance of a simpleton.

46. Partly in order to provide for this width of mouth, but more for
the advantage in flight, the head of the swallow is rounded into a
bullet shape, and sunk down on the shoulders, with no neck whatever
between, so as to give nearly the aspect of