OF SELBORNE. 
Thefe hirundines never perch on trees or roofs, and fo never 
congregate with their congeners. They are fearlefs while haunting 
their nefting places, and are not to be feared with a gun ; and are 
often beaten down with poles and cudgels as they floop to go under 
the eaves. Swifts are much infefted with thofe pefts to the genus 
called hippohofcce hirundhih ; and often wriggle and fcratch them- 
felves, in their flight, to get rid of that chnging annoyance. 
Swifts are no fongfters, and have only one harfli fcreaming 
note ; yet there are ears to which it is not difpleafing, from an agree* 
able affociation of ideas, fince that note never occurs but in the 
moft lovely fummer weather. 
They never fettle on the ground but through accident ; and 
when down can hardly rife, on account of the fhortnefs of their legs 
and the length of their wings : neither can they walk, but only 
crawl; but they have a ftrong grafp with their feet, by which they 
cling to walls. Their bodies being flat they Can enter a very 
narrow crevice ; and where they cannot pafs on their bellies they 
will turn up edgewife. 
The particular formation of the foot difcriminates the fwift from 
all the Bntip hirundines ; and indeed from all other known birds, 
the hirundo melba, or great white-bellied fwift of Gibraltar, excepted ; 
for it is fo difpofed as to carry " omnes quatuor digitos anticos" all 
it's four toes forward ; befides the leaft toe, which fliould be the 
back-toe, confifts of one bone alone, and the other three only of 
two apiece. A conftruAion moft rare and peculiar, but nicely 
adapted to the purpofes in which their feet are employed. This, 
and fome peculiarities attending the noftrils and under mandible, 
have induced a difcerning ^ naturalifl: to fuppofe that this /pedes 
might conftitute a genus per fe. 
^ John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M. D. 
B b In 
