94 



NATURAL 



IIISTORY 



LETTER LII. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne^ Sept. 9, 1781. 



I HAVE just met with a circumstance re- 

 specting swifts, 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 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 indi- 

 vidual 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 a crevice. 



