222 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



The pitying rocks, the groaniug caves return 



Their sad complaints again, and seem to mourn : 



This all observe, and I myself have known 



Both rocks and hills return six words for one : 



The dancing words from hill to hill rebound, 



They all receive, and all restore the sound : 



The vulgar and the neighbours think, and tell, 



That there the Nymphs, and Fauns, and Satyrs dwell : 



And that their wanton sport, their loud delight, 



Breaks through the quiet silence of the night : 



Their music's softest airs fill all the plains, 



And mighty Pan delights the list'ning swains : 



The goat-faced Pan, whose flocks securely feed ; 



With long-hung lip he blows his oaken reed : 



The horned, the half-beast god, when brisk and gay, 



With pine-leaves crowned, provokes the swains to play." 



(CREECH'S Translation.) 



SELBORNE, Feb. 12, 1778. 



LETTER LXXXI. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



AMONG the many singularities attending those amusing birds 

 the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opinion that we have 

 every year the same number of pairs invariably ; at least the 

 result of my inquiry has been exactly the same for a long time 

 past. The swallows and martins are so numerous, and so widely 

 distributed over the village, that it is hardly possible to re-count 

 them ; while the swifts, though they do not all build in the 

 church, yet so frequently haunt it, and play and rendezvous 

 round it, that they are easily enumerated. The number that I 

 constantly find are eight pairs ; about half of which reside in 

 the church, and the rest build in some of the lowest and meanest 

 thatched cottages. Now as these eight pairs, allowance being 

 made for accidents, breed yearly eight pairs more, what becomes 

 of this annual increase ; and what determines every spring 

 which pairs shall visit us, and reoccupy their ancient haunts ? 



