Martins in general were remarkably late this year.
Letter LII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Sept. 9, 1781.
I have just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, which
furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my observations ever
since I have bestowed any attention on that species of hirundines.
Our swifts, in general, withdrew this year about the first day of
August, all save one pair, which in two or three days was reduced
to a single bird. The perseverance of this individual made me
suspect that the strongest of motives, that of an attachment to her
young, could alone occasion so late a stay. I watched therefore till
the twenty-fourth of August, and then discovered that, under the
eaves of the church, she attended upon two young, which were
fledged, and now put out their white chins from a crevice. These
remained till the twenty-seventh, looking more alert every day, and
seeming to long to be on the wing. After this day they were missing
at once; nor could I ever observe them with their dam coursing
round the church in the act of learning to fly, as the first broods
evidently do.
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