NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 149 



variably but two eggs at a time, which are milk-white, long, and 

 peaked at the small end ; whereas the other species lay at each 

 brood from four to six. It is a most alert bird, rising very early, 

 and retiring to roost very late ; and is on the wing in the height 

 of summer at least sixteen hours. In the longest days it does 

 not withdraw to rest till a quarter before nine in the evening, 

 being the latest of all day birds. Just before they retire whole 

 groups of them assemble high in the air, and squeak, and shoot 

 about with wonderful rapidity. But this bird is never so much 

 alive as in sultry thundery weather, when it expresses great 

 alacrity, and calls forth all its powers. In hot mornings sev- 

 eral, getting together in little parties, dash round the steeples 

 and churches, squeaking as they go in a very clamorous man- 

 ner ; these, by nice observers, are supposed to be males sere- 

 nading their sitting hens ; and not without reason, since they 

 seldom squeak till they come close to the walls or eaves, and 

 since those within utter at the same time a little inward note 

 of complacency. 



When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes forth just as 

 it is almost dark, and stretches and relieves her weary limbs, 

 and snatches a scanty meal for a few minutes, and then re- 

 turns to her duty of incubation. Swifts, when wantonly and 

 cruelly shot while they have young, discover a little lump of 

 insects in their mouths, which they pouch and hold under 

 their tongue. In general they feed in a much higher district 

 than the other species ; a proof that gnats and other insects 

 do also abound to a considerable height in the air ; they also 

 range to vast distances, since locomotion is no labor to them 

 who are endowed with such wonderful powers of wing. Their 

 powers seem to be in proportion to their levers; and their 

 wings are longer in proportion than those of almost any other 

 bird. When they mute, or ease themselves in flight, they 

 raise their wings and make them meet over their backs. 



At some certain times in the summer I had remarked that 

 swifts were hawking very low for hours together over pools 

 and streams; and could not help inquiring into the object 

 of their pursuit that induced them to descend so much below 

 their usual range. After some trouble, I found that they were 

 taking phryganea, ephemera, and libellula (cadew-flies, may- 



