C 26s 3 
getlier at the entrance of their holes, and the fparrows 
up in arms and much difconcerted at thefe intruders. 
And yet I am affured, by a nice obferver in fuch matters, 
that they do colle6l feathers for their nefts in Andalulia ; 
and that he has fliot them with fuch materials in their 
mouths. Swifts, like fand-martins, carry on the bu- 
fmefs of nidification quite in the dark, in crannies of 
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 netting 
about the middle of May, and I have remarked, from 
eggs taken, that they have fat hard by the ninth of June, 
In general they haunt high buildings, churches, and ftee- 
ples, and build only in fuch; yet in this village fome 
pairs frequent the loweft and meaneft cottages, and edu- 
cate their young under thofe thatched roofs. We re- 
member but one inllance where they bred out of build- 
ings ; and that is in the lides of a deep chalk-pit near the 
town of Odiham in this county % where we have feen 
many pairs entering the crevices and fkimming and 
fqueaking round the precipices. As I have regarded 
thefe amulive birds with great attention, if I lliould ad- 
vance fomething new and peculiar with refpe<5l to them, 
and different from all other birds, I might perhaps be 
credited ; efpecially as my aflertion is the refult of many 
years exa6l obfervation. The fa6l that I would advance 
is, that fwifts tread or copulate on the wing ; and I could 
* Viz. Hampfliire, 
O o 2 
wllll 
