COMMON SWIFT. 273 



that they produce three, and sometimes even four, eggs. 

 These are white, and rather large, measuring one inch in 

 length, by eight lines in breadth. The young are not 

 hatched till towards the end of June, and there is reason 

 to suspect that they are slow of growth : they do not leave 

 the nest till the end of July, sometimes still later. The 

 young, though zealously fed by the parent birds while they 

 remain in the nest, are but little attended to afterwards, 

 and in some instances the whole family leave the country 

 together as soon as the young are able to sustain them- 

 selves firmly on the wing. Unless some accident happens 

 to the first eggs, the Swift produces but one set in the 

 season. " I have just met with a circumstance respecting 

 Swifts," says Gilbert White, " which furnishes an exception 

 to the whole tenor of my observations, ever since I have 

 bestowed any attention on that species of Hirundines. Our 

 Swifts, in general, withdrew this year (1781) 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 discovered 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 only two callow dead 

 Swifts, on which a second nest had been formed." Now, 

 although the maternal affection of the female bird, says 

 VOL. IT. T 



