182 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



" Palanteis comites quom monteis inter opacos 



" Quaerimus, et magni disperses voce ciemus. 



' ' Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces 



" Unam quom jaceres : ita coUes collibus ipsis 



"Verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referre. 



" Haec loca capripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere 



" Finitimi fingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur ; 



"Quorum noctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti 



" Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 



" Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 



"Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 



'' Et genus agricoltim lat^ sentiscere, quom Pan 



"Pinea semiteri capitis velamina quassans, 



" Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 



"Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." 



Lucretius, Lib. iv., 1. 576. 



LETTER XXXIX. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, May 13, 1778. 



Dear Sir, 



Among the 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. 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 .'' 



Ever since I have attended to the subject of ornithology, 1 

 have always supposed that that sudden reverse of affection, that 

 strange avTKjTopy-q, which immediately succeeds in the feathered 

 kind to the most passionate fondness, is the occasion of an equal 

 dispersion of birds over the face of the earth. Without this 

 provision one favourite district would be crowded with inhabi- 

 tants, while others would be destitute and forsaken. But the 

 parent birds seem to maintain a jealous superiority, and to oblige 



Ji 



