BOOKS FOR YOUNG SELBORNIA NS. 
53 
nest-holes is startling. The bird is flying above the level of its 
nest. It goes out to some distance from the church to get up 
steam, and when exactly opposite its nest swoops down, coming 
below and shooting up into it. Just as the stoop is made the 
wings are partially closed, there is a “ whsh ” through the air, 
and the Swift is inside the hole, without the slightest attempt 
to pull up. How the impetus is arrested is hard to say, but a 
Swift can bear without inconvenience a hard knock on the 
breast, when it can use its feet to break the force of the blow. 
When the female leaves her eggs in the evening and comes 
out for food and exercise,* she will lead the chorus as merrily as 
anyone. I have slightly cut the tails of several, and so was 
able to recognise them. 
The Swift is able to endure for a long time without food. 
There have been Swifts inside this church certainly for five 
days, and living at the end of that time, though getting weak. 
It has been impossible to get them out until weakness lias- 
brought them down to the lower windows. When, after a pair 
or two of Swifts have arrived in May, cold weather sets in and 
they disappear, I believe that they are lying still in a semi- 
torpid condition and taking advantage of this power of fasting. 
Aubrey Edwards. 
, (To be continued.) 
BOOKS FOR YOUNG SELBORNIANS. 
’ Twixt School and College, by Gordon Stables, M.L). Blackie & Sons, iSgr. 
[Price 5s], 
This book, which is dedicated to Mrs. E. Phillips, of Tunbridge Wells, a well- 
known friend of all birds and beasts, can be thoroughly recommended to all 
juvenile Selbornians. It not only contains a very interesting Scotch story of a 
manly, self-reliant, and kind-hearted lad, but is almost a complete compendium of 
instructions for the keeping of pets. Dr. Gordon Stables tells us that almost all 
the animals mentioned in the book — starling, terrier, cavy, cat, canary, collie, cow, 
and cockatoo — were pets of his own, and that all the principal humans had their 
counterparts in real life. Members of the National Guinea-Pig Society will be 
delighted with the volume, which not only gives full directions for the construction 
of caviaries, but ascribes almost all the virtues and vices of mankind to their 
inmates. They may weep over the misdoings of the incorrigible and parricidal 
“ Bob, but they will find consolation in the description of “ Daddy,” that most 
noble of “ piggies.” whose righteous actions should put the doings of mere 
human fathers to shame. The botanical portion of Dr. Stables’ book is not on a 
level with the zoological ; we should certainly not recommend young gardeners to 
introduce the wild convolvulus into their territories. We must give a word of 
praise to the illustrations by W. Parkinson, which are very far above the average. 
The face of the detected bird stealer (p. 169) is really admirable in its way. 
* I wondered how Gilbert White was able to discover this, but looking over 
one of his shorter letters again I find that only four pairs built in the church at 
Selborne, and that explains it. See Letter 39, p. 230, Natural History of Sel- 
horrie, original edition. 
