n 



Traded V " I have J ' ust met w * th a circumstance respecting 



_~ swifts, which furnishes an exception to the whole 



Of tOC tenor O f my observations ever since I have bestowed 



Eaves any attention on that species. 



Our swifts, in general, withdrew this year about 

 the first day of August, all save one pair, which in two or three 

 days was reduced to a single bird. The perseverance of this 

 individual made me suspect that the strongest of motives, that of 

 an attachment to her young, could alone occasion so late a stay. I 

 watched therefore till the twenty-fourth of August, and then dis- 

 covered that, under the eaves of the church, she attended upon two 

 young, which were fledged, and now put out their white chins from 

 a crevice. 



These remained till the twenty- seventh, looking more alert every 

 day, 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. 



Though it may be disagreeable to swifts to remain beyond the 

 beginning of August, yet that they can subsist longer is undeniable. 

 This uncommon event, as it was owing to the loss of the first brood, 

 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," 



175 



