L E T T E R LII.
TO TH E S A M E .
Selborne, Sept. 9, 1781.
I h a v e juft met with a circumftance- refpefting fwifts,. which
furnifties an exception to the whole tenor of my obfervations
ever fince I have bellowed, any attention on that fpecies of hirun-
dines. Our fwifts, in general, withdrew this year about the firft
day of Auguft, all fave one pair, which in two or three days was
reduced to a lingle bird. The perfeverance of this individual
made me fufpect that the ftrongeft of motives, that of an attach-
to her young, could alone occafion lb late a- Hay. I watched
therefore till the twenty-fourth o f Auguft, and then difcovered
that, under the eaves of the church, lhe attended upon two
young, which were fledged, and now put out their white chins
from a crevice. Thefe remained till the twenty-feventh, looking
more alert every day, and feeming to long to be on the wing.
After this day they were milling at once,- nor could I ever,
obferve them with their dam courfing round the church in the
a£t of learning to fly, as the firft broods evidently do. On the
thiity-firft I caufed the eaves to be fearched, but we found in the
neft only two callow, dead, llinking fwifts, on which a fecond neft
had been formed. This double neft was full of the black Ihining.
cafes of the MppobofCte hir-undinis.
The following remarks on this unufual incident are obvious.
The firft is, that though it may be difagreeable to fwifts to remain
beyond
beyond the beginning of Auguft, yet that they can fublift longer
is undeniable. The fecond is, that this uncommon event, as it
was owing to the lofs of the firft brood, fo it corroborates my
former remark, that fwifts breed regularly but once; fince, was
the contrary the cafe, the occurrence above could neither be new
nor rare.
P. S. One fwift was feen at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland,
in 1782, fo late as the third of September.
L E T T E R LIII.
TO T H E S A M E .
As I have fometimes known you make inquiries about feveral
kinds of infefts, I fhall here fend you an account of one fort
Which I little expefted to have found in this kingdom. I had
often obferved that one particular part of a vine growing on the
walls of my houfe was covered in the autumn with a black duft-
like appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly; and that the
Ihoots and leaves thus affixed did not thrive; nor did the fruit
ripen. T o this fubftance I applied my glafies; but could not
difeovet that it had any thing to do with animal life, as I at firft
expeaed: but, upon a elofer examination behind the larger
M m boughs,