!K> SWALLOWS. 



can be by no means certain, for it only arises from the fact that no one 

 has ever seen him collecting materials. I must say I [cannot see very well 

 how this could be seen, for any one who has ever watched these birds, 

 must know how inconceivably rapid their movements are, and how difficult, 

 nay, impossible, it would be to recognise any substance carried in their bills, 

 unless it were large and very apparent. Besides it is by no means necessary 

 for them to settle to collect materials, for feathers or hay may be easily 

 had for the gathering-in transition, and without even pausing in their flight. 



Their eggs are never more than two, which are white; and as Swifts 

 never stay with us more than three months, they have only one pair each 

 usually, though instances have occurred either of second broods, or late 

 broods from some other reason, such as destruction of the eggs, etc. It 

 is a very astonishing thought which presents itself when we reflect that a 

 pair of helpless, blind, naked, young birds of this species, which are incapable 

 of any voluntary motion in the beginning of July, should by the middle 

 of August, be coursing over the boundless ocean to other realms, and fully 

 qualified for the task; so kindly does the Creator adapt our corporeal powers 

 to the exigency which they are called upon to meet. 



The Swift has no note beyond a kind of harsh scream. He is either a 

 bold or foolish bird, which, it were hard to say, for he is not intimidated 

 by being repeatedly fired at, nor others by the fate of one; and often 

 forms a habitation in a commonly frequented place, such as inn yards, 

 the midst of a town, or the like; and the meanest cabins sometimes are 

 infested by them. They have a manner, in the evening, of wheeling around 

 the neighbourhood of their nests for an hour together, and their screams 

 are both incessant and inharmonious. 



When they have young it is their usual habit to carry such insects as 

 they catch under their tongues, where they form a considerable lump, as 

 any one who has shot them must have perceived. 



There are several other kinds of Swallows, but four only have ever been 

 classed as British birds; namely, the great White-bellied Swift of Gribralter, 

 (Cypselus Alpinus;) the Purple Martin, (ffirundo purpurea,) which is an 

 American bird; the Spine-tailed Swallow, (Hirundo catidacuta,) an Australian 

 species; and the Pratincole, (Glareola torquata.) But these are only occa- 

 sional visitants, and cannot be called ours; I can therefore say nothing of 

 them from personal experience, and shall only add that I myself saw a 

 very fine specimen of the Alpine Swift, some sixteen years ago, which 

 was preserved by Mr. Gould, being shot by Mr. Mumford, Chobham, Surrey, 

 somewhere in that parish, and was then in the collection of Mr. John 

 Wheeler, of Wokingham, near Reading, since deceased. 



Pembroke Square, Kensington, December, 1856. 



