190 SWIFTS. 



pretension to song, but uses a little inward wailing note, 

 when it thinks its young in danger from cats or other 

 annoyances : it breeds but once, and retires early.* 



Selborne parish alone can and has exhibited at times more 

 than half the birds that are ever seen in all Sweden : the 

 former has produced more than one hundred and twenty 

 species, the latter only two hundi^ed and twenty-one.f Let 

 me add, also, that it has shown near half the species that 

 were ever known in Great Britain. | 



On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries with 

 it a quaint and magisterial air, and is very sententious : but 

 when I recollect that you requested stricture and anecdote, 

 hope you will pardon the didactic manner for the sake of the 

 information it may happen to contain. 



LETTER LXI. 



TO THE HON. DAI]!fES BAEEIIS^GTON. 



Selborne, Sept. 28, 1774. 

 Peae Sie, — As the swift, or black-martin, is the largest of 

 the British hirundines, so it is undoubtedly the latest comer : 

 for I remember but one instance of its appearing before the 

 last week in April ; and in some of our late frosty harsh 

 springs, it has not been seen till the beginning of May. 

 This species usually arrives in pairs. 



The swift, lilie the sand-martin, is very defective in archi- 

 tecture, making no crust, or shell, for its nest, but forming 

 it of dry grasses and feathers, very rudely and inartiiicially 

 put together. With all my attention to these birds, I have 

 never been able once to discover one in the act of collecting 



* The muscicapa grisola, Linn. — W. J. 

 + Mr. Yarrell has infoimcd us that near seventy species of birds have been 

 noticed in Kensirigton Gardens, which considering the sitnation, as well as 

 the confined nature of the locality, is an unusually great numbei. — Yarrell'? 

 British Birds. 



J Sweden 221 ; Great Britain 252 species. 



