CHARACTERISTICS OP COMMON BIRDS. 221 



yet does fly, and I know those who have seen him do so, very like an 

 earwig I should imagine ; but there are some whose life is aerial, and 

 when I was a very young student in Natural History, I remember being 

 fully persuaded that Swallows never settled at all, and, except in nesting 

 time, I suppose they seldom do ; and Swifts even more seldom still. What 

 a delightful thing it is to sit on a balmy June morning, watching these 

 pretty creatures coursing along just over the grass-tops, and passing so near 

 that you almost fancy you feel the wind they make : at these times you 

 can see them very well, as every bird should be best seen, in his natural 

 element and occupation ; what ease and grace in his movements ; what 

 elasticity and swiftness ; what a glossy back he has, and how he seems to 

 command time and distance : this generally happens when he is taking his 

 chance prey ; and you may usually trace when an insect is seized, and hear 

 the snap of the bill. But there are other times, when the herbage teems 

 perhaps with some particular kind of fly, it may be the Small Chaffer, 

 (Scarabceus solstitialis,) a winged ant;° at these times you may see hundreds 

 of these pretty creatures, toying about as it were, just among the tops of 

 the bents, and almost dropping down as they seize their prey ; and thus 

 you have the best possible opportunity of watching them, for if you sit 

 still, the wild creatures seem, (as probably they are,) quite unaware of 

 your presence as a living thing. 



It is a somewhat curious circumstance, that Swallows and Swifts, which 

 are, I suppose, the most aerial birds living, should not be what are or- 

 dinarily termed wild birds, that is shy, and shunning man's neighbourhood, 

 indeed, so far from it, they build in our very houses, and will come' in 

 and out of a barn, a loft, or a outhouse, where people are continually at 

 work, and that even at the common door, or more commonly at some 

 small orifice.- I remember very well a pair of Swallows building in the 

 loft at our country house, which had a window looking out on the garden, 

 and in the centre of this window there was an aperture cut of a diamond 

 shape, to let in the light, certainly not four inches any way from point 

 to point, and these pretty creatures would shoot through this hole without 

 brushing a feather, in the most adroit manner. 



Now Swifts, as is well known, are particularly fond of small low houses 

 wherein to rear their young, and sometimes where the aperture is some- 

 what overhung by projecting eaves, they will settle on the wall immediately 

 beneath, and clinging to it so climb in, for which feat their peculiarly- 

 placed toes are very serviceable. I am sorry to confess that in my thoughtless 

 days I have often shot Swifts, because they were difficult to hit, and have 

 almost invariably found the elastic skin of the mouth or gape stored with 

 newly-taken insects, chiefly minute spiders, a store no doubt to be shortly 



* Beetle.— F. 0. Morris. 

 VOL. VII. 2 G 



