i8o NATURAL HISTORY 
The fwifc^ like the fand-martin, is very defeclive in architedure, 
making no cruft, orfliell, for it's neft; but forming it of dry grafles 
and feathers, very rudely and inartificially put together. With all 
my attention to thcfe birds, I have never been able once to difcover 
one in the a(5t of collefting or carrying in materials: fo that I have 
fufpeiled (lince their nefts are exatftly the fame) that they fome- 
times ufurp upon the houfe-fparrovvs, and expel them, as fj)arro\vs 
do the houfe and fand-martin ; well remembering that I have 
feen them fquabbling together at the entrance of their holes ; and 
the fparrows up in arms, and much-difconcerted at thefc intruders. 
And yet I am affured, by a nice obferver in fuch matters, that they 
do collect feathers for their nefts in Andalujia ; and that he has fhot 
them with fuch materials in their mouths. 
Swifts, like fand-martins, carry on the bufmefs of nidification 
quite in the dark, in crannies of caftles, and towers, and fteeples, 
and upon the tops of the walls of churches under the roof; and 
therefore cannot be fo narrowly watched as thofe fpecies that build 
more openly : but, from what I could ever obferve, they begin 
nefting about the middle oiMay; and I have iemarked, from eggs 
taken, that they have fat hard by the ninth of June. In general 
they haunt tall buildings, churches, and fteeples, and breed only 
in fuch : yet in this village fome pairs frequent the loweft and 
meaneft cottages, and educate their young under thofe thatched 
roofo. We remember but one inftance where they breed out of 
buildings ; and that is in the fides of a deep chalkpit near the town 
of Odiham, in this county, where we have feen many pairs entering 
the crevices, and Ikimming and fqueaking round the precipices. 
As I have regarded thefe amufive birds with no fmall attention, 
if I fhould advance fomething new and peculiar with refpe6t to 
them, and different from all other birds, I might perhaps be cre- 
dited ; 
