lays, as she does, from four to six white eggs. But as the species is
cryptogame, carrying on the business of nidification, incubation, and
the support of its young in the dark, it would not be so easy to
ascertain the time of breeding, were it not for the coming forth of the
broods, which appear much about the time, or rather somewhat earlier
than those of the swallow. The nestlings are supported in common like
those of their congeners, with gnats and other small insects; and
sometimes they are fed with libellulae (dragon-flies) almost as long as
themselves. In the last week in June we have seen a row of these
sitting on a rail near a great pool as perchers; and so young and
helpless, as easily to be taken by hand: but whether the dams ever feed
them on the wing, as swallows and house-martins do, we have never yet
been able to determine; nor do we know whether they pursue and attack
birds of prey.
When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they are
dispossessed of their breeding holes by the house-sparrow, which is on
the same account a fell adversary to house-martins.
These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, making only a
little harsh noise when a person approaches their nests. They seem not
to be of a sociable turn, never with us congregating with their
congeners in the autumn. Undoubtedly they breed a second time, like the
house-martin and swallow; and withdraw about Michaelmas.
Though in some particular districts they may happen to abound, yet in
the whole, in the south of England at least, is this much the rarest
species. For there are few towns or large villages but what abound with
house-martins; few churches, towers, or steeples, but what are haunted
by some swifts; scarce a hamlet or single cottage-chimney that has not
its swallow; while the bank-martins, scattered here and there, live a
sequestered life among some abrupt sand-hills, and in the banks of some
few rivers.
These birds have a peculiar manner of flying; flitting about with odd
jerks, and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a butterfly.
Doubtless the flight of all hirundines is influenced by, and adapted
to, the peculiar sort of insects which furnish their food. Hence it
would be worth inquiry to examine what particular group of insects
affords the principal food of each respective species of swallow.
Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some few sand-martins, I
see, haunt the skirts of London, frequenting the dirty pools in Saint
George’s-Fields, and about White-Chapel. The question is where these
build, since there are no banks or bold shores in that neighbourhood:
perhaps they nestle in the scaffold-holes of some old or new deserted
building. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes, like the
house-martin and swallow.
Sand-martins differ from their congeners in the diminutiveness of their
size, and in their colour, which is what is usually called a
mouse-colour. Near Valencia in Spain, they are taken, says Willughby,
and sold in the markets for the table; and are called by the country
people, probably from their desultory jerking manner of flight,
Papilion de montagna.
Letter XXI
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Sept. 28, 1774.
Dear Sir,
As the swift or black-martin is the largest of the British hirundines,
so is it undoubtedly the latest comer. For I remember but one instance
of its appearing before the last week in April: and in some of our late
frosty, harsh springs, it has not been seen till the beginning of May.
This species usually arrives in pairs.
The swift, like the sand-martin, is very defective in architecture,
making no crust, or shell, for its nest; but forming it of dry grasses
and feathers, very rudely and inartificially put together. With all my
attention to these birds, I have never been able once to discover one
in the act of collecting or carrying in materials: so that I have
suspected (since their nests are exactly the same) that they sometimes
usurp upon the house-sparrows, and expel them, as sparrows do the house
and sand-martin; well remembering that I have seen them squabbling
together at the entrance of their holes; and the sparrows up in arms,
and much disconcerted at these intruders. And yet I am assured, by a
nice observer in such matters, that they do collect feathers for their
nests in Andalusia; and that he has shot them with such materials in
their mouths.
Swifts, like sand-martins, carry on the business of nidification quite
in the dark, in crannies of castles, and towers, and steeples, and upon
the tops of the walls of churches under the roof; and therefore cannot
be so narrowly watched as those species that build more openly: but,
from what I could ever observe, they begin nesting about the middle of
May; and I have remarked, from eggs taken, that they have sat hard by
the ninth of June. In general they haunt tall buildings, churches, and
steeples, and breed only in such: yet in this village some pairs
frequent the lowest and meanest cottages, and educate their young under
those thatched roofs. We remember but one instance where they breed out
of buildings; and that is in the sides of a deep chalk-pit near the
town of Odiham, in this county, where we have seen many pairs entering
the crevices, and skimming and squeaking round the precipices.
As I have regarded these amusive birds with no small attention, if I
should advance something new and peculiar with respect to them, and
different from all other birds, I might perhaps be credited; especially
as my assertion is the result of many years’ exact observation. The
fact that I would advance is, that swifts tread, or copulate, on the
wing: and I would wish any nice observer, that is startled at this
supposition, to use his own eyes, and I think he will soon be
convinced. In another class of animals, viz., the insect, nothing is so
common as to see the different species of many genera in conjunction as
they fly. The swift is almost continually on the wing; and as it never
settles on the ground, on trees, or roofs, would seldom find
opportunity for amorous rites, was it not enabled to indulge them in
the air. If any person would watch these birds of a fine morning in
May, as they are sailing round at a great height from the ground, he
would see, every now and then, one drop on the back of another, and
both of them sink down together for many fathoms with a loud piercing
shriek. This I take to be the juncture when the business of generation
is carrying on.
As the swift eats, drinks, collects materials for its nest, and, at it
seems, propagates on the wing; it appears to live more in the air than
any other bird, and to perform all functions there save those of
sleeping and incubation.
This hirundo differs widely from its congeners in laying invariably but
two eggs at a time, which are milk-white, long, and peaked at the small
end; whereas the other species lay at each brood from four to six. It
is a most alert bird, rising very early, and retiring to roost very
late; and is on the wing in the height of summer at least sixteen
hours. In the longest days it does not withdraw to rest till a quarter
before nine in the evening, being the latest of all day birds. Just
before they retire whole groups of them assemble high in the air, and
squeak, and shoot about with wonderful rapidity. But this bird is never
so much alive as in sultry thundry weather, when it expresses great
alacrity, and calls forth all its powers. In hot mornings several,
getting together in little parties, dash round the steeples and
churches, squeaking as they go in a very clamorous manner; these, by
nice observers, are supposed to be males, serenading their sitting
hens; and not without reason, since they seldom squeak till they come
close to the walls or eaves, and since those within utter at the same
time a little inward note of complacency.
When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes forth just as it is
almost dark, and stretches and relieves her weary limbs, and snatches a
scanty meal for a few minutes, and then returns to her duty of
incubation. Swifts, when wantonly and cruelly shot while they have
young, discover a little lump of insects in their mouths, which they
pouch and hold under their tongue. In general they feed in a much
higher district than the other species; a proof that gnats and other
insects do also abound to a considerable height in the air: they also
range to vast distances; since locomotion is no labour to them, who are
endowed with such wonderful powers of wing. Their powers seem to be in
proportion to their levers; and their wings are longer in proportion
than those of almost any other bird. When they mute, or ease themselves
in flight, they raise their wings, and make them meet over their backs.
At some certain times in the summer I had remarked that swifts were
hawking very low for hours together over pools and streams; and could
not help inquiring into the object of their pursuit that induced them
to descend so much below their usual range. After some trouble, I found
that they were taking phryganeae, ephemerae, and libellulae
(cadew-flies, may-flies, and dragon-flies) that were just emerged out
of their aurelia state. I then no longer wondered that they should be
so willing to stoop for a prey that afforded them such plentiful and
succulent nourishment.
They bring out their young about the middle or latter end of July: but
as these never become perchers, nor, that ever I could discern, are fed
on the wing by their dams, the coming forth of the young is not so
notorious as in the other species.
On the thirtieth of last June I untiled the eaves of an house where
many pairs build, and found in each nest only two squab naked pulli: on
the eighth of July I repeated the same inquiry, and found they had made
very little progress towards a fledged state, but were still naked and
helpless. From whence we may conclude that birds whose way of life
keeps them perpetually on the wing would not be able to quit their nest
till the end of the month. Swallows and martins, that have numerous
families, are continually feeding them every two or three minutes;
while swifts, that have but two young to maintain, are much at their
leisure, and do not attend on their nests for hours together.
Sometimes they pursue and strike at hawks that come in their way; but
not with that vehemence and fury that swallows express on the same
occasion. They are out all day long in wet days, feeding about, and
disregarding still rain: from whence two things may be gathered; first,
that many insects abide high in the air, even in rain; and next, that
the feathers of these birds must be well preened to resist so much wet.
Windy, and particularly windy weather with heavy showers, they dislike;
and on such days withdraw, and are scarce ever seen.
There is a circumstance respecting the colour of swifts, which seems
not to be unworthy our attention. When they arrive in the spring they
are all over of a glossy, dark soot-colour, except their chins, which
are white; but, by being all day long in the sun and air, they become
quite weather-beaten and bleached before they depart, and yet they
return glossy again in the spring. Now, if they pursue the sun into
lower latitudes, as some suppose, in order to enjoy a perpetual summer,
why do they not return bleached ? Do they not rather perhaps retire to
rest for a season, and at that juncture moult and change their
feathers, since all other birds are known to moult soon after the
season of breeding?
Swifts are very anomalous in many particulars, dissenting from all
their congeners not only in the number of their young, but in breeding
but once in a summer; whereas all the other British hirundines breed
invariably twice. It is past all doubt that swifts can breed but once,
since they withdraw in a short time after the flight of their young,
and some time before their congeners bring out their second brood. We
may here remark, that, as swifts breed but once in a summer, and only
two at a time, and the other hirundines twice, the latter, who lay from
four to six eggs, increase at an average five times as fast as the
former.
But in nothing are swifts more singular than in their early retreat.
They retire, as to the main body of them, by the tenth of August, and
sometimes a few days sooner: and every straggler invariably withdraws
by the twentieth, while their congeners, all of them, stay till the
beginning of October; many of them all through that month, and some
occasionally to the beginning of November. This early retreat is
mysterious and wonderful, since that time is often the sweetest season
in the year. But, what is more extraordinary, they begin to retire
still earlier in the most southerly parts of Andalusia, where they can
be no ways influenced by any defect of heat; or, as one might suppose,
defect of food. Are they regulated in their motions with us by a
failure of food, or by a propensity to moulting, or by a disposition to
rest after so rapid a life, or by what? This is one of those incidents
in natural history that not only baffles our searches, but almost
eludes our guesses!
These hirundines never perch on trees or roofs, and so never congregate
with their congeners. They are fearless while haunting their nesting
places, and are not to be scared with a gun; and are often beaten down
with poles and cudgels as they stoop to go under the eaves. Swifts are
much infested with those pests to the genus called hippoboscae
hirundinis; and often wriggle and scratch themselves, in their flight,
to get rid of that clinging annoyance.
Swifts are no songsters, and have only one harsh screaming note; yet
there are ears to which it is not displeasing, from an agreeable
association of ideas, since that note never occurs but in the most
lovely summer weather.
They never settle on the ground but through accident; and when down can
hardly rise, on account of the shortness of their legs and the length
of their wings: neither can they walk, but only crawl; but they have a
strong grasp with their feet, by which they cling to walls. Their
bodies being flat they can enter a very narrow crevice; and where they
cannot pass on their bellies they will turn up edgewise.
The particular formation of the foot discriminates the swift from all
British hirundines; and indeed from all other known birds, the hirundo
melba, great white-bellied swift of Gibraltar, excepted; for it is so
disposed as to carry ‘omnes quatuor digitos anticos’ all its four toes
forward; besides, the least toe, which should be the back-toe, consists
of one bone alone, and the other three only of two apiece. A
construction most rare and peculiar, but nicely adapted to the purposes
in which their feet are employed. This, and some peculiarities
attending the nostrils and under mandible, have induced a discerning
naturalist* to suppose that this species might constitute a genus per
se.
* John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M.D.
In London a party of swifts frequents the Tower, playing and feeding
over the river just below the bridge; others haunt some of the churches
of the Borough next the fields; but do not venture, like the
house-martin, into the close crowded part of the town.
The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on this swallow, calling
it ring swala, form the perpetual rings or circles that it takes round
the scene of its nidification.
Swifts feed on coleoptera, or small beetles with hard cases over their
wings, as well as on the softer insects; but it does not appear how
they can procure gravel to grind their food, as swallows do, since they
never settle on the ground. Young ones, over-run with hippoboscae, are
sometimes found, under their nests, fallen to the ground: the number of
vermin rendering their abode insupportable any longer. They frequent in
this village several abject cottages: yet a succession still haunts the
same unlikely roofs: a good proof this that the same birds return to
the same spots. As they must stoop very low to get up under these
humble eaves, cats lie in wait, and sometimes catch them on the wing.
On the fifth of July, 1775, I again untiled part of a roof over the
nest of a swift. The dam sat in the nest; but so strongly was she
affected by natural στοργὴ for her brood, which she supposed to be in
danger, that, regardless of her own safety, she would not stir, but lay
sullenly by them, permitting herself to be taken in hand. The squab
young we brought down and placed on the grass-plot, where they tumbled
about, and were as helpless as a new-born child. While we contemplated
their naked bodies, their unwieldy disproportioned abdomina, and their
heads, too heavy for their necks to support, we could not but wonder
when we reflected that these shiftless beings in a little more than a
fortnight would be able to dash through the air almost with the
inconceivable swiftness of a meteor; and perhaps, in their emigration
must traverse vast continents and oceans as distant as the equator. So
soon does nature advance small birds to their ἡλικία or state of
perfection; while the progressive growth of men and large quadrupeds is
slow and tedious!
I am, etc.
Letter XXII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Sept. 13, 1774.
Dear Sir,
By means of a straight cottage chimney I had an opportunity this summer
of remarking, at my leisure, how swallows ascend and descend through
the shaft; but my pleasure, in contemplating the address with which
this feat was performed to a consideraable depth in the chimney, was
somewhat interrupted by apprehensions lest my eyes might undergo the
same fate with those of Tobit.*
* Tobit ii. 10.
Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at what times the
different species of hirundines arrived this spring in three very
distant counties of this kingdom. With us the swallow was seen first on
April the 4th, the swift on April the 24th, the bank-martin on April
the 12th, and the house-martin not till April the 30th. At South Zele,
Devonshire, swallows did not arrive till April the 25th; swifts, in
plenty, on May the 1st; and house-martins not till the middle of May.
At Blackburn, in Lancashire, swifts were seen April the 28th, swallows
April the 29th, house-martins May the 1st. Do these different dates, in
such distant districts, prove anything for or against migration ?
A farmer, near Weyhill, fallows his land with two teams of asses; one
of which works till noon, and the other in the afternoon. When these
animals have done their work, they are penned, all night, like sheep,
on the fallow. In the winter they are confined and foddered in a yard,
and make plenty of dung.
Linnaeus says that hawks ‘paciscuntur inducias cum avibus, quamdiu
cuculus cuculat’ but it appears to me that, during that period, many
little birds are taken and destroyed by birds of prey, as may be seen
by their feathers left in lanes and under hedges.
The missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and pugnacious, driving
such birds as approach its nest, with great fury, to a distance. The
Welch call it pen y llwyn, the head or master of the coppice. He
suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird, to enter the garden where he
haunts; and is, for the time, a good guard to the new-sown legumens. In
general he is very successful in the defence of his family: but once I
observed in my garden, that several magpies came determined to storm
the nest of a missel-thrush: the dams defended their mansion with great
vigour, and fought resolutely pro aris & focis; but numbers at last
prevailed, they tore the nest to pieces, and swallowed the young alive.
In the season of notification the wildest birds are comparatively tame.
Thus the ring-dove breeds in my fields, though they are continually
frequented; and the missel-thrush, though most shy and wild in the
autumn and winter, builds in my garden close to a walk where people are
passing all day long.
Wall-fruit abounds with me this year: but my grapes, that used to be
forward and good, are at present backward beyond all precedent: and
this is not the worst of the story; for the same ungenial weather, the
same black cold solstice, has injured the more necessary fruits of the
earth, and discoloured and blighted our wheat. The crop of hops
promises to be very large.
Frequent returns of deafness incommode me sadly, and half disqualify me
for a naturalist; for, when those fits are upon me, I lose all the
pleasing notices and little intimations arising from rural sounds: and
May is to me as silent and mute with respect to the notes of birds,
etc., as August. My eyesight is, thank God, quick and good; but with
respect to the other sense, I am, at times, disabled:
And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
Letter XXIII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, June 8, 1775.
Dear Sir,
On September the 21st, 1741, being then on a visit, and intent on
field-diversions, I rose before daybreak: when I came into the
enclosures, I found the stubbles and clover-grounds matted all over
with a thick coat of cobweb, in the meshes of which a copious and heavy
dew hung so plentifully that the whole face of the country seemed, as
it were, covered with two or three setting-nets drawn one over another.
When the dogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were so blinded and
hoodwinked that they could not proceed, but were obliged to lie down
and scrape the incumbrances from their faces with their fore-feet, so
that, finding my sport interrupted, I returned home musing in my mind
on the oddness of the occurrence.
As the morning advanced the sun became bright and warm, and the day
turned out one of those most lovely ones which no season but the autumn
produces; cloudless, calm, serene, and worthy of the South of France
itself.
About nine an appearance very unusual began to demand our attention, a
shower of cobwebs falling from very elevated regions, and continuing,
without any interruption, till the close of the day. These webs were
not single filmy threads, floating in the air in all directions, but
perfect flakes or rags; some near an inch broad, and five or six long,
which fell with a degree of velocity which showed they were
considerably heavier than the atmosphere.
On every side as the observer turned his eyes might he behold a
continual succession of fresh flakes falling into his sight, and
twinkling like stars as they turned their sides towards the sun.
How far this wonderful shower extended would be difficult to say; but
we know that it reached Bradley, Selborne, and Alresford, three places
which lie in a sort of a triangle, the shortest of whose sides is about
eight miles in extent.
At the second of those places there was a gentleman (for whose veracity
and intelligent turn we have the greatest veneration) who observed it
the moment he got abroad; but concluded that, as soon as he came upon
the hill above his house, where he took his morning rides, he should be
higher than this meteor, which he imagined might have been blown, like
thistle-down, from the common above: but, to his great astonishment,
when he rode to the most elevated part of the down, 300 feet above his
fields, he found the webs in appearance still as much above him as
before; still descending into sight in a constant succession, and
twinkling in the sun, so as to draw the attention of the most
incurious.
Neither before nor after was any such fall observed; but on this day
the flakes hung in the trees and hedges so thick, that a diligent
person sent out might have gathered baskets full.