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.
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