NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 101 



Swallows with us sometimes build in barns against 

 rafters : & so they did in Virgil's time : Antea quam tignis 

 nidos suspendit hirundo. Some times also they build in 

 porches : & therefore the epithet or trivial name, chimney, 

 (chimney-swallow) used by Mr. Ray is not a good one : 

 & would still be more improper in countries where there 

 are no chimnies. 



Long before I had the pleasure of your correspondence 

 I began to suspect that Swifts copulate flying. I kept my 

 suspicions to myself, & have observed them narrowly 

 several years ; & do not yet find any reason to retract 

 my supposition ; and therefore hope you will not be 

 startled at it. 



Those that will attend to their motions on fine summer 

 mornings in the height of breeding time, may see that as 

 they sail gently round very high in the air, one shall settle 

 on the back of the other. During this contact they tumble 

 down for many fathoms together head over heels with a 

 loud shriek : at this juncture I suppose the business of 

 generation is carrying on. 



There is nothing very strange in the supposition ; for we 

 know that many insects engender flying ; as do ducks in 

 their own element the water. All that I have to say about 

 swifts farther at present is, that if what I advance is true, 

 these birds eat, drink, collect materials for their nests, & 

 procreate on the wing : in short perform every function 

 in the air except that of incubation & sleeping !] 



When I used to rise in a morning last autumn, and see 

 the swallows and martins clustering l on the chimneys and 



1 The migration of the Swallows from England can be observed by any one 

 interested in birds. When the instinct of migration becomes enforced, numbers 

 of Swallows may be seen congregating on telegraph-wires or on the bare boughs 

 of trees. They rest for a day or so and are gone the next. Sand- Martins also 

 affect the telegraph-wires in large numbers at the season of migration, and I have 

 also seen them in flocks resting on the warm sands of our southern harbours (such 

 as Pagham was in the old days), before migrating across the Channel. All that I 

 procured were young birds, and I did not see a single adult one. In inland 

 villages I have known our House-Martins to congregate in what Gilbert White 

 would have called " vast " numbers on the slate roofs of houses in the early morn- 

 ing, as the slates were warmed by the sun. They would sit preening their 



