Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ire/and. 177 



Constantinople only were both the Cypselus murarius and C. melba 

 seen. 



White of Selborne, and Mr. Macgillivray (Brit. Birds), give very 

 copious and highly interesting accounts of the swift, from personal 

 ) ) servation. 



Alptne Swift, Cypselus alpinus, Temm. — By the e Dublin 

 Penny Journal ' of March 1833, my attention was called to a 

 vara avis said to have been killed at Rathfarnham, and pre- 

 served in the fine collection of native birds belonging to 

 Thomas W. Warren, Esq. of Dublin. 



On calling to see this bird, I found it to be the Cypselus alpinus, 

 a species unrecorded as occurring in any part of Ireland ; the speci- 

 men recognised as the alpine swift by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire, and com- 

 municated by him to Mr. Selby as an addition to the British fauna, 

 having been obtained off Cape Clear, at the distance of some miles from 

 land. Mr. Warren's specimen is incorrectly stated in the * Journal' 

 to have been captured in the month of February, as, according to a 

 note made by that gentleman when the circumstance occurred, the 

 bird was sent to him from Rathfarnham, in the neighbourhood of 

 Dublin, on the 14th of March, being then in a perfectly fresh state. 



Four individuals of this species have since been met with in 

 England, as particularly noticed in the ' British Birds' of Yarrell 

 and Macgillivray. 



The first place I met with the alpine swift was about ten miles to 

 the north of Naples, on the 12th of August 1826, when a great 

 number of them were observed associated together in flight, at a 

 considerable altitude. The evolutions of this species in the air are 

 similar to those of the common swift ; but independently of their 

 superior size, which at once distinguishes them from that bird, the 

 white colour of a portion of the under plumage, from which they 

 have received the name of * white-bellied swift,' is very conspicuous, 

 even when the bird is at a considerable elevation. 



When on the Continent in 1841, this species was first seen by us 

 on the 9th of April, when descending the Rhone from Lyons to 

 Avignon. About half-way between these cities several appeared 

 flying over the river, and a few were seen at all suitable places thence 

 to Avignon. On the morning of the 28th of April, when entering 

 the fine bay of Navarino, great numbers appeared careering high 

 overhead, and in walking through the petty town of the same name 

 later in the day, alpine swifts were flying very low over the streets 

 and houses, although 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 attrac- 

 tion here was a range of noble precipitous cliff's which rise direct 

 from the sea, at the western side of the island, and which were in- 

 habited by them ; just such a locality as would be tenanted by the 

 common swift in the north of Ireland, where the basaltic precipices 

 are resorted to. The day was as fine and warm as our northern 

 summers ever boast, yet on walking along the top of the cliffs, these 



Ann. $ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. x. N 



