• LXII.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
183 
naturalist to suppose that this species miglit constitute a genus 
by itself. 
In London a party of swifts frequent the Tower, playing 
and feeding over the river just below the bridge: others 
haunt some of the churches of the Borough next the fields ; but 
do not venture, like the house-martin, into the close, crowded 
part of the town. 
The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on this 
swallow, calling it " ring swala," from the perpetual rings or 
circles that it takes round the scene of its nidification. 
Sw^ifts feed on cohoptera, or small beetles with hard cases over 
their wings, as well as on the softer insects ; bat it does not 
appear how they can procure gravel to grind their food, as 
swallows do, since they never settle on tlie ground. Young 
ones, overrun with hippohoscce, are sometimes found, under 
their nests, fallen to the ground ; the number of vermin 
rendering their abode insupportable any longer. They fre- 
quent in this village several abject cottages ; yet a succession 
still haunts the same unlikely roofs : a good proof this that 
the same birds return to the same spots. As they must stoop 
very low to get up under these humble eaves, cats lie in wait, 
and sometimes catch them on the wing. 
On the 5th of July, 1775, I again untiled part of a roof over 
the nest of a swift. The dam sat in the nest ; but so strongly 
was she affected by her natural arop^r] for her brood, which she 
supposed to be in danger, that, regardless of her own safety, she 
would not stir, but lay sullenly by them, permitting herself to 
be taken in hand. The squab young we brought down and 
placed on the grass-plot, where they tumbled about, and were 
as helpless as a new-born child. While we contemplated their 
