The answer to your question depends on the altitude of the swallow and whether it's being cased by a flacon or not. ;)<br/><br/>The prehensile whip trait (which is the same as the magical enchantment for a whip of the same name, states:<br/><br/>"Benefit: You can use a whip as if it were a rope with a grappling hook at the end. Attaching your whip is a standard action, but detaching it is a full-round action.  "<br/><br/>That's where I got the full round action part. I think it was meant to reduce the chance for abuse of it. The only difference between the trait and the enchantment is that the enchantment, I think, has a slight improvement to the attack... a +1 perhaps.<br/><br/>I like whips just for this reason, maneuvers like trip, disarm and grapple can be taken without being in melee range but gives you the option of attacking from up to 15' away... with the enchantment and a panache point, that stretches to 20'.<br/><br/>Anyway, I'm happy to go with the ruling, but it's usefulness after the first attack drops because you're in melee the next round and dropping it takes less time than sheathing it and drawing a weapon.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>The attack penalty from ranged attacks is -8 for you. being prone gives a +4 bonus to AC against ranged attacks, and there's the -4 for firinginto combat. You could still hit him, but it wouldn't be worth the effort. If there's anyone close by that can hack at him though, he's just laying there dazed. ;)