280 
NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER LIL 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Selborne, Sept. 9, 1781. 
HAVE just met with a circumstance respect- 
ing swifts, whicli furnishes an exception to 
the whole tenor of my observations ever 
since I have bestowed any attention on that 
species of Hirundines. Our swifts, in gene- 
ral, 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 individual made me 
suspect that the strongest of motives, that of an attach- 
ment to her young, could alone occasion so late a stay. I 
watched therefore till the 24th of August, and then dis- 
covered 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. These remained till the 
27th, 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 31st I caused the 
eaves to be searched, but we found in the nest only tw:o 
callow, dead, stinking swifts, on which a second nest had 
been formed. This double nest was full of the black 
shining cases of the Hippohosca hirundinis. 
The following remarks on this unusual incident are 
obvious. The first is, that though it may be disagreeable 
to swifts to remain beyond the beginning of August, yet 
that they can subsist longer is undeniable. The second is, 
that this uncommon event, as it was owing to the loss of 
the first brood, so it corroborates my former remark, that 
swifts breed regularly but once ; since, was the contrary the 
case, the occurrence above could neither be new nor rare. 
P.S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the county of 
Rutland, in 1782, so late as the 3rd of September. 
