LETTER XCVI. 

 To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 



I HAVE just met with a circumstance respecting 

 swifts which furnishes an exception to the whole 

 tenor of my observations ever since I have bestowed 

 any attention on that species of hirundines. Our 

 swifts, in general, withdrew 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 per- 

 severance of this individual made me suspect that 

 the strongest of motives, that of an attachment to 

 her young, could alone occasion so late a stay. I 

 watched therefore till the 24th 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 

 remained till the 27th, 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 31st 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 Hippoboscce hiriindinis. 



The following remarks on this unusual incident 

 149 



