246 NATURAL HISTORY 



Aclfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 

 Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 

 Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 

 Et genus agricolum late sentiscere, quom Pan 

 Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 

 Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 

 Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musatn." 



LUCBETIUS, lib. iv. 1. 576. 



LETTER XXXIX. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBOBNE, May 13, 1778. 



ONG tlie many singularities attending those 

 amusing birds, the swifts, I am now confirmed 

 in the opinion that we have every year the 

 same number of pairs invariably; at least, 

 the result of my inquiry has been exactly the 

 same for a long time past. 1 The swallows and martins are 

 so numerous, and so widely distributed over the village, 

 that it is hardly possible to recount them ; while the swifts, 

 though they do not all build in the church, yet so frequently 

 haunt it, and play and rendezvous round it, that they are 

 easily enumerated. The number that I constantly find are 

 eight pairs ; about half of which reside in the church, and 

 the rest build in some of the lowest and meanest thatched 

 cottages. Now, as these eight pairs, allowance being made 

 for accidents, breed yearly eight pairs more, what becomes 

 annually of this increase ; and, what determines every 

 spring which pairs shall visit us, and reoccupy their ancient 

 haunts ? 



1 It has been proved by experiment that swallows and swifts return 

 to haunts where in previous years they have successfully reared their 

 young. The birds have been caught upon their nests, and after being 

 marked by having particular claws cut, or by having a little bit of 

 ribbon or silver wire fastened round the foot, have been again liberated. 

 The following year the marked birds have been recaptured in the same 

 locality. ED. 



