280 NATURAL HISTORY 



In London a party of swifts frequents the Tower, 

 playing and feeding over the river just below the bridge : 

 others haunt some of the churches of the Borough next 

 the fields ; but do not venture, like the house martin, 

 into the close crowded part of the town. 



The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name 

 on this swallow, calling it ring-swala, from the per- 

 petual rings or circles that it takes round the scene of 

 its nidification. 



Swifts feed on Coleoptera, or small beetles with hard 

 cases over their wings, as well as on the softer insects ; 

 but it does not appear how they can procure gravel 5 

 to grind their food, as swallows do, since they never 

 settle on the ground. Young ones, overrun with Hip- 

 pobosca, are sometimes found, under their nests, fallen 

 to the ground ; the number of vermin rendering their 

 abode insupportable any longer. They frequent in this 

 village several abject cottages; yet a succession still 



on the south coast of Ireland, recorded by Mr. Selby, to whom the bird 

 was sent; one in Norfolk ; and one by the gardener of R. Holford, Esq. 

 at Kingsgate on the coast of Kent. W. Y. 



6 Very few of the soft billed birds eat gravel ; the nightingale never, 

 nor does the redstart. The whin chat in confinement will sometimes 

 swallow stones as large as swan shot, which pass through very soon ; 

 but he seems to eat them like a fool, taking them for victuals, in the same 

 manner as I have seen tame redstarts, which do not naturally choose ve- 

 getable food, swallow green peas, after passing several minutes in trying 

 to kill them. But these birds have the power of regurgitating the shells 

 and hard parts of insects which they cannot digest, throwing them off in 

 little oval balls. Young birds before they feed themselves appear to be 

 endowed with powers of digestion which they do not afterwards retain. 

 There is no difficulty in rearing any young Sylvia; till they are full grown ; 

 but after this period the difficulty of preserving them by artificial food 

 commences. The redstart gives to its young such beetles as the aged bird 

 is afraid of swallowing. It feeds its young entirely with flies, and cole- 

 opterous insects. The brown wren does the same, often giving them the 

 large lambda moth. The yellow wren gives aphides and small green 

 caterpillars. Full grown whitethroats, which have been reared in a cage, 

 at the sight of a green caterpillar, immediately perk i.p their heads, and 

 cry etchat, etchat. Tame Sylvia are such fools, that if the floor of their 

 cage is cleaned by a flannel rubber or woollen mop, they eat the woollen 

 hairs, which form an indigestible ball in their stomach, which they cannot 

 regurgitate, and which is sure to kill them. W. H. 



