i 86 N A T U R A L 11 1 S T O R Y 
In London a party of fwlfts frequents the Tower, playing and feed- 
ing over the river juft below the bridge : others haunt, fome of die 
churches of the Borough next the fields ; but do not venture, like 
the hoi'.fe-inariin, into the clofe crowded part of the town. 
The Swedes have beftowcd a very pertinent name on this, fwallow,. 
calling it ringfwala, from the perpetual rings or circles that it takes- 
round the fcene of it's nidification. 
Swifts feed on coleoptera, or fmall beetles with hard cafes over 
their wings, as well as on the fofter infeds ; but it does not appear 
how they can procure gravel to grind their food, as fwallows do, 
fmce they never fettle on the ground. Young ones, over-run with 
h'ippohofca, are fometimes found, under their nefts, fallen to the 
ground ; the number of vermin rendering their abode infupportable 
any longer. They frequent in this village feveral abjedt cottages ; 
yet a fucceffion flill haunts the fame unlikely roofs : a good proof 
this that the fame birds return to the fame fpots. As they muft 
ftoop very low to get up under thefe humble eaves, cats lie in, wait, 
and fometimes catch them on the wing. 
On the fifth of July, 1775, I again untiled part of a roof over the 
neft of a fwift. The dam fat in the neft ; but fo ftrongly was 
(he affefled by natural (tts^j/h for her brood, which flie fuppofed. 
tp be in danger, that, regardlefs of her own fafety, Ihe would not 
ftir, but lay fullenly by them, permitting herfelf to be taken in 
hand. The fquab young we brought down and placed on the 
grafs-plot, where they tumbled about, and were as helplefs as. 
a. new-born child. While we contemplated their- naked bodies, 
their unwieldy difproportioned abdomina, and their heads, too 
heavy for their necks to fupport, we cauld not but wonder when 
we refledled that thefe fhiftlefs beings in a little more than a 
fortnight would be able to dafh through the air almoft with the 
inconceivable 
