in the Tower of the Church at Oswestry, 351 



timbers of the woodwork, 20 in. in length, 7 in. in depth, 

 and 7 in. in width ; containing, therefore, rather more than half 

 a square foot. In this chamber the workman discovered a 

 considerable number of the skeletons of swifts and starlings. 

 He took out as many as fifty-seven ; but, as he did not remove 

 the rubbish with any degree of care, or clear it quite out to 

 the bottom, there were probably more in the cavity than the 

 above number. He did not find them in the chinks of the 

 old wall, but in the hollow cavity, above described, between 

 the wall and the frame of the clock, mixed up indiscriminately 

 with a quantity of mortar rubbish that had fallen into the 

 cavity, and with loose bits of straw and feathers. The skele- 

 tons appeared to be those of different years, as some had the 

 feathers on in a tolerably perfect state ; others were partially 

 clothed with them ; but the majority had none at all. Being 

 confined to the house at the time by illness, I did not become 

 aware of the fact till some weeks afterwards ; when only four 

 of the specimens taken out could be found, and which are 

 now in my possession ; all the rest having been lost. These 

 four specimens, which are skeletons of swifts, appear, as far 

 as I am able to judge, to be those of full-grown birds; and I 

 understand, that all who saw the rest of the skeletons con- 

 sidered them to be those of old birds. As the frame of the 

 clock is very large, and the birds have ingress in several 

 places, I have no doubt, had the whole frame been removed, 

 instead of the small portion above mentioned, a vast number 

 of other specimens would have been discovered, as swifts 

 have always been in the habit of resorting to it for building. 



There would be nothing, perhaps, particularly interesting in 

 the above discovery, if it could be supposed that the skeletons 

 were those of young birds, which had perished in the nest, 

 and been thrown out into the cavity underneath ; and in birds 

 of this class there is, perhaps, some difficulty in distinguishing 

 correctly between the skeletons of old and young birds. But, 

 as swifts are stated never to have more than two young ones, 

 the great number found in so small a space (for far the greater 

 number of specimens, as I understand, were those of swifts) 

 leads, I think, to the conclusion, that many of them, at least, 

 must have been those of old birds. One way (though, per- 

 haps, not a very scientific one) of ascertaining the point would 

 be, to shoot a swift, and, after the flesh had been completely 

 decomposed by a natural process, to compare the skeleton 

 accurately with those found. If, however, the skeletons 

 above mentioned are those of old birds, then, as they had 

 free egress as well as ingress to the place, the only solution 

 of the fact seems to be, that the birds, remaining, from some 



