of Selborne 223 



observations ever since I have bestowed any attention on 

 that species of hirundines. Our swifts, in general, with- 

 drew 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 attach- 

 ment to her young, could alone occasion so late a stay. 

 I watched therefore till the tw-enty-fourth 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 re- 

 mained 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 

 hippohosccE hirtindinis . 



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 county of 

 Rutland, in 1782, so late as the third of September. 



