The fwift, like the fand-martin, is very defective in architefture,
making no cruft,orfliell, fork ’s neft; but forming it of dry graffes
and feathers, very rudely and inartificially put together. With all
my attention to thefe birds, I have never been able once to difcover
one in the aft of eollefting or carrying in materials: fo that I have
fufpefted (lince their nefts are exaftly the fame) that they fome-
times ulurp upon, the houfe-fparrows, and expel them, as fparrows
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 thefe intruders.
And yet I am allured,-by a nice obferver in fuch matters, that they
do colleft feathers for their nefts in Andalufia; and that he has Ihot
them .with fuch materials in their mouths.
Swifts, like fand-martins, carry on the bulinefs 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 of May; and I have remarked, from eggs
taken, that they have fat hard by the ninth of June. In general
they haunt tall buildings, churchesf 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
roofs. We remember but one inftance where they breed out of
buildings; and that is in the lides 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 precipiees.
As. I have regarded thefe amufive birds with no fmall attention,
i f I Ihould advance fomething new and peculiar with refpeft to
them, and differentTrom all other birds, I might perhaps be cre-
„ dited;
dited ; efpecially as my affertion is the refult of many years exaft
obfervation. The faft that I would advance is, that fwifts tread,
or copulate, on the wing: and I would wilh any nice obferver,
that is ftartled at this fuppofition, to ufe his own eyes, and I think
he will foon be convinced. In another clafs of animals, viz. the
infeH, nothing is fo common as to fee the different fpecies of many
genera in conjunftion as they fly. The fwift is almoft continually
on the wing; and as it never fettles on the ground, on trees, or
roofs, would feldom find opportunity for amorous rites, was it not
enabled to indulge them in the air. I f any perfon would watch
thefe birds of a fine morning in May, as they are failing round at a
great height from the ground, he would fee, every now and then,
one drop on the back of another, and both of them fink down together
for many fathoms with a loud piercing fhriek. This I take
to be the junfture when the bufinefs of generation is carrying on.
- As die fwift eats, drinks, collefts materials for it’s neft, and, as
it feems, propagates on the wing; it appears to live more in the-
air than any other bird, and to perform all funftions there fave
thofe of fleeping and incubation.
T h is hirundo differs widely from it’s congeners in laying invariably
but two eggs at a time, which are milk-white, long, and
peaked at the fmall end ; whereas the other fpecies lay at each
brood from four to fix. It is a moil alert bird, rifing very early,
and retiring to rooft very late; and is on the wing in the height
of fumrner at leaft fixteen hours. In the longeft days it does not
withdraw .to reft till a quarter before nine in the evening, being the
lateft of all day birds. Juft before they retire whole groups of
them affemble high in the air, and fqueak, and fhoot about with
wonderful rapidity. But this bird is never fo much alive as in
fultry thundry weather, when it expreffes great alacrity, and calls
forth