SHIFTS. 191 



or carrying in materials : so that I liave suspected (since 

 tlieir nests are exactly the same) that they sometimes usurp 

 upon the house-sparrows, and expel them, as sparrows do the 

 house and sand-martin — well remembering that I have seen 

 them squabbling together at the entrance of their holes, and 

 the sparrows up in arms, and much disconcerted at these 

 intruders ; and yet I am assured by a nice observer in such 

 matters, that they do collect feathers for their nests in 

 Andalusia, and that he has shot them with such materials m 

 their mouths. 



Swifts, like sand-martins, carry on the business of nidifi- 

 cation quite in the dark, in crannies of castles, and towers, 

 and steeples, and upon the tops of the walls of churches, 

 under the roof, and therefore cannot be so narrowly watched 

 as those species that build more openly; but, from what 

 I could ever observe, they begin nesting about the middle of 

 May ; and I have remarked, from eggs taken, that they have 

 sat hard by the 9th of June. In general, they haunt tall 

 buildings, churches, and steeples, and breed only in such ; 

 yet, in this village, some pairs frequent the lowest and 

 meanest cottages, and educate their young imder those 

 thatched roofs. AVe remember but one instance where they 

 breed out of buildings, and that is in the sides of a deep 

 chalk pit near the town of Odiham, in this county, where wo 

 have seen many pairs entering the crevices, and skimming 

 and squeaking round the precipices. 



As I have regarded these amusive birds with no small 

 attention, if I should advance something new and peculiar 

 with respect to them, and different from all other birds, I 

 might perhaps be credited, especially as my assertion is the 

 result of many years' exact observation. The fact that I 

 would advance is, that swifts tread, or copulate on the wing ; 

 and I would \ns,h. any nice observer that is startled at this 

 supposition to use his own eyes, and I think he will soon be 

 convinced. In another class of animals, viz., the insect, 

 nothing is so common as to see the different species of many 

 genera in conj miction as they fly. The swift is almost con- 

 tinually on the ^ving ; and as it never settles on the ground, 

 on trees, or roofs, would seldom find opportunity for amorous 

 rites, were it not enabled to indulge them in the air. [f any 

 person would watch these birds of a fine morning in May, as 



