NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 77 



This hirundo l differs widely from it's congeners in laying 

 invariably but two 2 eggs at a time, which are milk-white, 

 long, and peaked at the small end ; whereas the other 

 species lay at each brood from four to six. It is a most 

 alert bird, rising very early, and retiring to roost very late ; 

 and is on the wing in the height of summer at least sixteen 

 hours. In the longest days it does not withdraw to rest 

 till a quarter before nine in the evening, being the latest of 

 all day birds. Just before they retire whole groups of 

 them assemble high in the air, and squeak, and shoot about 

 with wonderful rapidity. But this bird is never so much 

 alive as in sultry thundry weather, when it expresses great 

 alacrity, and calls forth all it's powers. In hot mornings, 

 several, getting together in little parties, dash round the 

 steeples and churches, squeaking as they go in a very 

 clamorous manner : these, by nice observers, are supposed 

 to be males serenading their sitting hens ; and not without 

 reason, since they seldom squeak till they come close to 

 the walls or eaves, and since those within utter at the same 

 time a little inward note of complacency. 



When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes forth just 

 as it is almost dark, and stretches and relieves her weary 

 limbs, and snatches a scanty meal for a few minutes, and 

 then returns to her duty of incubation. Swifts, when 

 wantonly and cruelly shot while they have young, discover 

 a little lump of insects in their mouths, which they pouch 

 and hold under their tongue. In general they feed in a 

 much higher district than the other species ; a proof that 

 gnats and other insects do also abound to a considerable 

 height in the air : they also range to vast distances ; since 

 loco-motion is no labour to them who are endowed with 



1 The Swift was classed by Linnaeus and the older authors as a Swallow 

 (Hirundo], It is now known, however, to belong to a totally different Order of 

 Birds, viz. the Cypseliformes. The Swifts are of world-wide distribution like the 

 Swallows, but they differ in many points of anatomical structure, notably in the 

 proportions of the wing-bones, and also in many external characters likewise. 

 [R. B. S.] 



a Mr. Harting (ed. "Selborne," p. 203, note) points out that three eggs are 

 sometimes laid. He has himself found that number in a nest. 



