220 THE RECTORY AND ITS BIRDS 



and appearance. Scientific ornithologists now place 

 them, for anatomical reasons, in a separate class 

 next to the goatsuckers or woodpeckers. Not less 

 than twelve pairs used to build in the roof, and 

 always in the same holes, doubtless, identically the 

 same birds in each, though I never proved it to 

 demonstration, as I might have done, by tying 

 small pieces of differently-coloured silk to the 

 claws of the old birds which I held, year after year, 

 in my hand, and which I seemed to know, and 

 which seemed to know me so well. Few birds 

 attracted the attention of old Gilbert White more 

 than the swift. He chronicled the dates of their 

 arrival and departure ; he described the peculiarities 

 of their structure and of the vermin which invest 

 them ; he speculated on their love-making and 

 their hibernating. The Natural History of 

 Selborne I knew almost by heart when I was a 

 boy of twelve ; and I well remember the zest with 

 which I handled the first swift I had ever found in 

 its nest, when it occurred to me that I was treading, 

 longo intervallo certainly, but still treading in the 

 great naturalist's footsteps. But now, when I 

 come to think of it, it was not exactly treading in 

 his footsteps ; for I have grave doubts whether the 

 all-observant Fellow of Oriel ever climbed a tree, 



