SWIFTS. 209 



and fury that swallows express on the same 

 occasion. They are out all day long on wet days, 

 feeding about, and still disregarding rain ; from 

 whence two things may be gathered first, that 

 many insects abide high in the air, even in rain, 

 and next, that the feathers of these birds must be 

 well preened to resist so much wet. Windy, and 

 particularly windy weather with heavy showers, 

 they dislike, and on such days withdraw, and are 

 scarce ever seen. 



There is a circumstance respecting the colour 

 of swifts, which seems not to be unworthy our 

 attention. When they arrive in the spring, they 

 are all over of a glossy dark soot colour, except 

 their chins, which are white ; but, by being all 

 day long in the sun and air, they become quite 

 weather-beaten and bleached before they depart, 

 and yet they return glossy again in the spring. 

 Now, if they pursue the sun into lower latitudes, 

 as some suppose, in order to enjoy a perpetual 

 summer, why do they not return bleached ? Do 

 they not rather, perhaps, retire to rest for a season, 

 and at that juncture moult and change their fea- 

 thers, since all other birds are known to moult 

 soon after the season of breeding ? 



Swifts are very anomalous in many particulars, 

 dissenting from all their congeners not only in the 

 number of their young, but in breeding but once 

 in a summer; whereas all the other British hirun- 

 dines breed invariably twice. It is past all doubt 

 that swifts can breed but once, since they with- 

 draw in a short time after the flight of their young, 

 and some time before their congeners bring out 

 their second broods. We may here remark, that 

 as swifts breed but once in a summer, and only 

 two at a time, and the other hirundines twice, the 



