Swallow. According to Scandinavian legend, the bird hovered over the cross of Christ, crying, Svalê! svalê! (“Cheer up! cheer up!”), and hence it received the name of svalê or swallow, “the bird of consolation.”
If a swallow builds on a house, it brings good luck.
The swallow is said to bring home from the seashore a stone which gives sight to her fledglings.
Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone which the swallow
Brings from the shore of the sea, to restore the sight of its fledglings.
Longfellow, Evangeline, i. 1 (1849).
To kill a swallow is unlucky.
When swallows fly high, the weather will be fine.
When swallows fleet soar high and sport in air,
He told us that the welkin would be clear.