LETTER LII. 



T0 the same. 



SELBORNE, Sept. tyh, 1781. 



HAVE just met with a circumstance respecting 

 swifts, which furnishes an exception to the whole 

 tenor of my observations ever since I have be- 

 stowed any attention on that species of hirundines. 

 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 



