280 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER LII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BAREINGTON. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 9, 1781. 



HAVE just met with a circumstance respect- 

 ing 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 gene- 

 ral, 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 perseverance of this individual made me 

 suspect that the strongest of motives, that of an attach- 

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

 watched therefore till the 24th of August, and then dis- 

 covered 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 Hippobosca hirundinis. 



The following remarks on this unusual incident are 

 obvious. The first is, that though it may be disagreeable 

 to swifts to remain beyond the beginning of August, yet 

 that they can subsist longer is undeniable. The second is, 

 that this uncommon event, as it was owing to the loss of 

 the first brood, so it corroborates my former remark, that 

 swifts breed regularly but once ; since, was the contrary the 

 case, the occurrence above could neither be new nor rare. 



P.S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the county of 

 Rutland, in 1782, so late as the 3rd of September. 



