THE WHITE-COLLARED SWIFT. 



107 



splendid bay of Navarino, great numbers appeared careering high overhead. When walking 

 through the pretty town of the same name, later in the day, Alpine Swifts were observed 

 flying very low over the streets and houses, though the weather was delightfully warm and 

 fine. On my visiting the island of Sphacteria, the western boundary of the bay, on the 29th, 

 these birds were very abundant. The attraction here was a range of noble precipitous cliffs 

 rising directly above the sea, at the western side of the island. These Swifts inhabited the 

 cliffs, which are similar to those tenanted by the common species in the north of Scotland. 



"Although the day was as fine and as warm as our northern summers ever are, these 

 birds, as I walked along the top of the cliffs, swept about low and in numbers, occasionally 

 within a few yards of my head. This remark is made from the circumstance of the common 

 Swift being generally high in the air in fine weather ; we do, however, occasionally observe it 

 sweeping near the earth at such 

 times. Though larger, they in 

 general appearance and flight 

 strongly resemble the common 

 Swift : they are very noisy, al- 

 most constantly uttering a loud 

 twitter, beside which, they occa- 

 sionally give a brief scream, no- 

 wise resembling the long-drawn 

 and shrill cry of the common 

 species. Towards the end of 

 May, I saw a few Alpine Swifts 

 at Constantinople, wheeling 

 about the heights of Pera, and 

 near the high tower of Galata, 

 in which they probably build. 

 In the month of June, I met 

 with this species at the island 

 of Paros, and about the Acrop- 

 olis of Athens. 



"Throughout this town, the 

 common Swift was more fre- 

 quently seen than the Gypselus 

 alpinus, and at one locality only 

 did they both appear this was 

 at Constantinople, where the 

 former species was abundant, 

 and a few of the latter were 

 observed. This seemed rather 

 remarkable, as in no scene did I 

 meet with the one species, in 

 which the other would not have 



appeared equally at home. The only difference in their habits which struck me, was, that the 

 Alpine Swift is apparently more partial to cliffs than buildings, the common Swift more partial 

 to artificial structures than to rocks." 



THE WHITE-COLLAKED SWIFT (Cypselus cayenensis), to which bird a passing reference 

 has already been made, is a native of the Brazils, and is easily to be distinguished by the 

 peculiarity of coloring from which it derives its name. The general tint of the plumage is the 

 deepest violet-blue, so deep, indeed, that except in certain lights it appears to be velvet-black. 

 Round the neck runs a band or collar of the purest white, the two contrasting tints having a 

 remarkably fine effect. 



The nest of this species is very singular in its form, being a short, truncated cone, the 



WHITE-BELLIED SWIFT Cypselus tnelta, ami SWIFT Oypsdm aput. 



