This is the meaning of its Hebrew name, and surely no more fitting title
could be applied to so unfettered and freedom-loving a bird. Tennyson,
in his great poem, "In Memoriam," speaks of
"Short swallow-flights of song that dip
Their wings ... and skim away."
Who does not love to see it darting through the sunshine, skimming along
the surface of a stream, or wheeling away in airy circles on its swift,
untired wings! It is a thing of beauty and a joy for ever--happy as the
summer light, free and untamable as the breeze.
And we set this down as the first law of bird-life--that every songster
of the field and wood _should be free_. This is its birthright and
blessing, and no one has the right to rob it of its liberty. The green
fields and the blue sky have been given to it as its heritage, and the
barbarous custom of binding its wandering wing and shutting it up in a
cage should be censured and condemned by all healthy minds. The
swallow, indeed, cannot be thus tamed and domesticated. She who claims
the whole earth as her fatherland refuses to be imprisoned in a cage.
She will die rather than yield. And all young hearts cannot learn the
lesson too soon that the feathered tribes of the woodland ought to be
left to their God-given liberty.