OF SELBORNE. 95 



These remained till the twenty-seventh, 

 looking more alert everyday, and seeming 

 to long to be on the wing. After this day 

 they were missing at once ; nor could I 

 ever observe them with their dam coursing 

 round the church in the act of learning to 

 fly, as the first broods evidently do. On 

 the thirty first I caused the eaves to be 

 searched, but we found in the nest only two 

 callow, dead, stinking swifts, on which a 

 second nest had been formed. This double 

 nest was full of the black shining cases of 

 the hippobosccE hirundinis. 



The following remarks on this unusual 

 incident are obvious. The first is, that 

 though it maybe disagreeable to swifts to 

 remain beyond the beginning of August, yet 

 that they can subsist longer is undeniable. 

 The second is, that this uncommon event, 

 as it was owing to the loss of the first 

 brood, so it corroborates my former remark, 

 that swifts breed regularly but once ; since, 

 was the contrary the case, the occurrence 

 above could neither be new nor rare. 



