To ordinary observers a Swift appears so much like a Swallow, that the only difference discernible by them is a difference of colour. To the inquiring naturalist, however, a much more important distinction presents itself in the peculiar and remarkable anatomy of the former bird. Not only has it a greater extent of wing, moved by larger and more powerful muscles, but the structure of the foot is curiously adapted for climbing within the narrow crevices which are usually selected as nesting-places. In the Swallow and other Hirundines the toes are long and slender—three in front and one behind in the same plane, as is usual with insessorial This singularity of structure has induced naturalists to consider the Swifts (for there are several species) generically distinct from the Swallows; and the former, therefore, are now placed by common consent in the genus Cypselus, a name adopted from Aristotle, and suggested by Illiger, as indicating the bird’s habit of hiding its nest in a hole. The remarks which have been made upon food in the case of the Swallows, apply equally in the case of the Swifts. The latter have so frequently been observed in localities presenting very different species of insects, and sweeping in the summer evenings through the midst of little congregated parties of various kinds, that there is little doubt that the nature of the food The Common Swift is the last of the Hirundines to arrive in this country, and the first to leave it. Its habits are very different from those of the Swallows. As a rule it makes no nest, but only lines a hole, into which it creeps; it lays but two eggs (rarely three), instead of five or six like the Swallows; it rears but one brood in the summer, instead of two, or even three, as Swallows often do. The late Mr. J. Although usually preferring lofty towers and church turrets, the Swift frequently nests under eaves at a comparatively short distance from the ground; and I have had excellent opportunities As a general rule, the Swift is not observed in this country before the third week in May, and is seldom seen after the third week in August. It is found throughout the mainland of the British Islands, and breeds also in Mull and Iona, but not in Orkney or Shetland, nor in the Outer Hebrides. It does not travel quite so far north as either the Chimney Swallow or the Martin, but the late Mr. Wolley saw it on the Faroes, If we look for the bird during the months that it is absent from Great Britain, we find that it is very abundant at the Cape of Good Hope in winter, arriving about September 5, and departing northwards in April. It is seen in As winter disappears it gradually moves northward, and a month before it arrives in England it is found in some numbers along the entire coast-line of the Mediterranean. Mr. Osbert Salvin saw it at Tunis on the 8th March, and subsequently numerous at Algiers. In the middle of March, Mr. Chambers found it plentiful at Tripoli, and at the end of the same month it was observed by Mr. Howard Saunders at Gibraltar. In the middle of April, Lord Lilford remarked that it was common in the neighbourhood of Madrid; about which time, according to Messrs. Elwes and Buckley (“Ibis,” 1870, p. 200), it usually makes its appearance in Turkey, arriving there doubtless from the Ionian Islands, From Spain, through France, to England is but a short journey for a bird with powers of wing like the Swift; and hence one is not surprised to see hawking over the South Downs in May the birds which but a week previously were circling round the Moorish towers of Spain. Its return southward in autumn is apparently by the same route as that chosen for its northward journey in spring, and in this respect it differs in habit from many other species. In India its place is to a certain extent taken by a non-migratory species, Cypselus affinis, but it has nevertheless been met with in that country. An Indian specimen was received from Dr. Jerdon, presumably from the north-west. |