245 
NATURAL HISTORY 
Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 
Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 
Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 
Et genus agricolum late sentiscere, quom Pan 
Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 
Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 
Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." 
LucBETius, lib. iv. 1. 576. 
LETTER XXXIX. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Selborne, May 13, 1778, 
MO!NG 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 ? 
^ It has been proved by experiment that swallows and swifts return 
to haunts where in previous years they have successfully reared their 
young. The birds have been caught upon their nests, and after being 
marked by having particular claws cut, or by having a little bit of 
ribbon or silver wire fastened round the foot, have been again liberated. 
The following year the marked birds have been recaptured in the same 
locality. — Ed. 
