90 REMARKS ON THE 
his ‘Natural History of Selborne,’ letter 52. “I 
have just met with a circumstance respecting Swifts,” 
says that pleasing writer, “‘ which furnishes an excep- 
tion 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 (1781) about the first day of August, all 
save one pair, which in two or three days was re- 
duced to a single bird. The perseverance 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 twenty-fourth 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 acrevice. These remained 
till the twenty-seventh, 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 thirty-first I caused 
the eaves to be searched, but we found only two 
callow dead Swifts, on which a second nest had been 
formed.” Now, although the maternal affection of 
the female bird, in the instance before us, was suffi- 
ciently powerful to induce her to remain with her 
young till they were capable of accompanying her in 
a distant journey to a more genial climate, as is 
