NOTES ON BRITISH SWALLOWS. 135 



It turned out, however, a fatal mixture; one of the Swifts was seen in the 

 gloaming soaring aloft, displaying a floating pendent in one of the Sparrows* 

 hempen lines, and next morning found tethered to the branches of a pear- 

 tree growing nearly in contact with the wall, quite dead. 



Tiiis bird sometimes leaves its young to perish in the nest, should it un- 

 fortunately have a late brood, not fledged in time to migrate with the others, 

 when they leave in September. We once witnessed a distressing case where 

 the abandoned family suffered a slow death by starvation. It was really 

 painful to see the little creatures after their parents had gone, protruding 

 their round sooty faces, and plaintively dieeping for food. Their cradle served 

 them as a tomb; and next year, the old birds finding the skeletons difficult 

 to remove, built another nest on their remains. 



In addition to the species whose habits we have in part attempted to 

 describe, we have to record the supposed appearance, in our locality, of the 

 Alpine Swift, ((7. Alpinus;) but we are sorry that what we have to relate of 

 it is of a very unsatisfactory nature. From our Journal it appears to have 

 been on the 22nd. of May, 1847, when this bird '^^met our astonished gaze." 

 Our attention was riveted in a moment to it, as it hawked for prey above a 

 range of stables early in the morning of that day; and from that hour we resolved, 

 if possible, to get hold of it. For three successive days and evenings, we saw 

 it occasionally in the same neighbourhood, flying in company with other 

 Swifts, and having got ready a charge of small shot, we took as determined 

 a stand against it as any misguided or cruel collector of British rarities ever 

 did. Many an upward look did we indulge in, waiting a chance to bring it 

 down; now it would poise at an altitude of eighty yards, or thereby, and 

 again dash off at lightning speed, while its white breast glanced in the light 

 — the very phenomenon that gave eagerness to our designs on its person; 

 then it would return again and hang on almost motionless wing above us 

 at the same respectful distance, until some shrill scream from one of its 

 darker companions gave the signal for a change. But, shy though it was, 

 its doom was fixed; we shot it as it glanced athwart a chimney top — a most 

 unfortunate moment. Now, cried we, for the decision; but alas! it was 

 swallowed in the jaws of the gaping funnel, and was seen no more. It had 

 •actually fallen down the wide-mouthed chimney of an unoccupied house, whence 

 [it was impossible to recover it. We could in our turn do nothing but give 

 IjTeht to our regret that our winged prey had in this way cheated our hopes. 

 pThere were besides, the unpleasant doubts about its species, connected with its 

 pudden and unlooked-for disappearance, which heightened the loss. Colour 

 lone induced the question, Alpinus or Apus? and in our mortified enthusiasm 

 fe*we could only answer — "Too black, and yet too white." 



"Like spirits of a middle sort, 

 Who dropt just half-way down, nor lower fell." 



Dryden. 

 April \st., 1854. 

 VOL. IV. T 



