[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIE,—Tennyson, as an observer
of nature, hardly needs a defender. But it is interesting to note that Vergil, another close observer, falls into the same error, if error it be, with regard to the swallow's habits when he speaks of " Procne, with murder's stain upon her breast " as an enemy of the hive. In a poem of such exquisite finish as "The Poet's Song" the probabilities seem to be against any such inadvertence as the writing of " bee" for " fly." Male equidem cunt Yergilio errare. But, in any case, Tennyson's swallow is right "all the time." He "stopt" Can it be that not the poet's song was responsible for this interruption of the chase but the horrifying discovery made by the bird, on closer inspection, that what lie had taken for a blue-bottle was, in reality, a honey-bee, and therefore not fair game; according to the
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