1768 SWALLOWS AND SWIFTS 163 



XIX. was addressed from Selborne to Pennant. 

 The letter originally contained the following pass- 



ages : — 



"I wrote to you about the 25th of July, and hope my 

 letter reached you, as it was directed to Sir E[oger] Mostyn 

 as usual. In that letter I gave you an account that I had 

 sent the fishes of our streams up to Mazel to be engraved. 

 You had in it also a pretty exact description of the Ambres- 

 bury loach taken from living specimens procured from 

 thence ; my sentiments with regard to the use of toads near 

 Hungerford ; and my suspicions with regard to the water-eft." 



[Here follows the paragraph already printed at 

 page 115.] 



"The behaviour of the antelope which you saw in town, 

 strongly corroborates my suspicions concerning the deer. I 

 desire you will not fail to procure a buck's head from 

 Sir R M. and will have it dissected with care. I could 

 have procured one with ease myself 'til this year : but now 

 my neighbour Sir Simeon Stuart has destroyed his stock, and 

 turned his park into sheep-walks. 



" The first young swallows appeared on July 4th, and the 

 first martins began to congregate on the bush of the village 

 maypole on July 23. 



"To me it is very plain that the first swallows and 

 martins that congregate, are the birds of the first brood, 

 and that thro' an inability of flying long at a time. For 

 while these first flyers are spending as much time on a may- 

 pole, the battlements of a tower &c. : the old ones are busily 

 employed in rearing a second brood. 



" The swifts have never been seen with us since Aug. 5th, 

 and I conclude will come no more this season. I am always 

 amazed that this species should constantly depart so many 

 months before their congeners. It is worth our remarking 



