34 The Natural History of Selborne 



occasion so late a stay. I watched therefore till the 24th 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 in the nest only two callow, dead, 

 stinking swifts, on which a second nest had been formed. This 

 double nest was full of the black shining cases of the hippobosc*e 

 hirundinis. 



The following remarks on this unusual incident are obvious. The 

 first is, that though it may be disagreeable to swifts to remain 

 beyond the beginning of August, yet that they can subsist longer 

 is undeniable. The second is, that this uncommon event, as it was 

 owing to the loss of the first brood, so it corroborates my former 

 remark, that swifts breed regularly but once ; since, was the con- 

 trary the case, the occurrence above could neither be new nor 

 rare. 



P.S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the country of Rutland, 

 in 1782, so late as the third of September. 



