•28(3 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



think this is unusual with Swifts. It is well known they 

 are very susceptible of cold, more so than the Swallow, 

 as is proved by their coming later and leaving earlier. 

 Mr. Gray mentioned to me, as a remarkable instance of 

 the feebleness to which they can occasionally be reduced, 

 that once the walls of St. Mary's Church, in Dover, were 

 covered with them, hanging in great clusters, seemingly 

 incapable of exerting their powers of flight." 



In Birds of Bainham, by Mr. W. H. Power, he says : 

 " The Swift was first seen this year (18G.5) on May 8, 

 This bird is not common in the neighbourhood, there 

 being no suitable breeding-place for them except the 

 church-tower. Noticed them beginning to collect in 

 flocks about July 13. I saw one this year as late as 

 September 7." 



Mr. G. F. Mathews says: "I noticed a Swift here 

 (Sheerness) on September 15. Surely this i.: very late ? " 

 Mr. Boyd Alexander, in his notes in the Birds of Kent, 

 says: "The Swifts also fly in batches, circling round 

 high trees and towers alike. The shrill sound of the 

 ceaseless screaming of their voices fitfully strikes one's 

 ear as these weird-looking birds, with their curved wings, 

 sharply quivering, cut through the air, and swinging 

 round the trees with such hne tact and precision that 

 they hardly as much as tickle or scrape the leaves' smooth 

 surface." In the Orlestone district the Swift w'as first 

 observed on May 14, 1902. 



In the Zoologist, 1904, Mr. E. P. Butterfield, in his 

 ornithological notes, mentions : " As I was leaving my 

 brother's residence on Shooter's Hill, Plumstead, early 

 one morning about the third week in June, he pointed 

 out to me a pair of Swifts, which were breeding in the 

 nest of a House-Martin." 



