OF SELBORNE. 315 



These hirundines never perch on trees or 

 roofs, and so never congregate with their 

 congeners. They are fearless while haunt- 

 ing their nesting places, and are not to be 

 scared with a gun ; and are often beaten 

 down with poles and cudgels as they stoop 

 to go under the eaves. Swifts are much 

 infested with those pests to the genus called 

 hippohosccB hirundinis ; and often wriggle 

 and scratch themselves, in their flight, to 

 get rid of that clinging annoyance. 



Swifts are no songsters, and have only 

 one harsh screaming note : yet there are 

 ears to which it is not displeasing, from an 

 agreeable association of ideas, since that 

 note never occurs but in the most lovely 

 Summer weather. 



They never settle on the ground but 

 through accident ; and when down can 

 hardly rise, on account of the shortness of 

 their legs and the length of their wings : 

 neither can they walk, but only crawl; but 

 they have a strong grasp with their feet, by 

 which they cling to walls. Their bodies 

 being flat they can enter a very narrow 



