306 



NATURAL HISTORY 



house-sparrows, and expel them, as spar- 

 rows do the house and sand martin ; well 

 remembering that I have seen them squab- 

 bling together at the entrance of their holes ; 

 and the sparrows up in arms, and much 

 disconcerted at these intruders. And yet 

 I am assured by a nice observer in such 

 matters, that they do collect feathers for 

 their nests in A^idalusia; and that he has shot 

 them with such materials in their mouths. 



Swifts, like sand-martins, carry on the 

 business of nidification quite in the dark, in 

 crannies of castles, and towers, and steeples, 

 and upon the tops of the walls of churches 

 under the roof ; and therefore cannot be so 

 narrowly watched as those species that 

 build more openly : but, from what I could 

 ever observe, they begin nesting about the 

 middle of Mat/ ; and I have remarked, from 

 eggs taken, that they have sat hard by the 

 ninth of June. In general they haunt tall 

 buildings, churches, and steeples, and breed 

 only in such : yet in this village some pairs 

 frequent the lowest and meanest cottages, 

 and educate their young under those 



