no The Natural History of Selborne 



nondescript in England, and what I have never been able 

 yet to procure) retires or migrates very early in the summer ; 

 it also ranges very high for its food, feeding in a different 

 region of the air ; and that is the reason I never could 

 procure one. Now this is exactly the case with the swifts ; 

 for they take their food in a more exalted region than the 

 other species, and are very seldom seen hawking for flies 

 near the ground, or over the surface of the water. From 

 hence I would conclude that these hirundines and the larger 

 bats are supported by some sorts of high-flying gnats, scarabs, 

 or phalcenw, that are of short continuance ; and that the 

 short stay of these strangers is regulated by the defect of 

 their food. 



By my journal it appears that curlews clamoured on to 

 October the thirty-first; since which I have not seen or 

 heard any. Swallows were observed on to November the 

 third. 



