TENNYSON'S POET'S SONG.
r To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."1 Sra,—When Tennyson wrote-- "The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee" he was not incorrect, as your correspondent appears to think. In proof of this I beg to call attention to a letter from Mr. S. A. Duncan, of Herbertdale, Cape of Good Hope, who in a letter to the late Professor Churton Collins, dated January 27th, 1900, and quoted in his "Life," says "I am a very old and extensive bee-keeper, and one of the greatest troubles I ever had to contend with is the immense destruction of my bees by the swallows. I have shot great numbers (three species) and found them in each case choke-full of my poor bees. They don't seem to mind the stings at all." If Tennyson altered " bee " to " fly " because he thought that swallows do not " hunt " bees he might, were he alive now, go back to the original with better information available.--I am, Sir, &c., GEORGE E. FYROli. Broadhurst, Bloomfield Gardens, Bath,
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