SWALLOWS AND SWIFTS 



Among all our smaller birds the swifts and swallows have the 

 finest gift of flight ; and their constant activity in the air is 

 in many ways more impressive than the kitelike soaring or 

 floating of birds of prey and of gulls. These often rest 

 upon the air, with no more muscular effort than is required to 

 adjust the planes of their wings and tails to the changing air- 

 current ; but swifts and swallows travel at high speed, even 

 when their wings are doing least work, and their muscles seem 

 almost tireless. Their glorious flight and constant activity 

 in the air make them the most birdlike of birds ; they are 

 doubly welcome when they appear in spring, and most missed 

 when they leave the autumn sky 



Swifts, as we have said, are not really members of the 

 swallow tribe, but of a rather isolated family which have 

 become swallow-like through similarity of habit. They show 

 their different affinities by only laying two eggs, while 

 swallows and martins usually lay five. By continually hunt- 

 ing insects in the air, all these birds have acquired in common 

 thin wings, spare bodies, and a wonderful power of flight. 

 Seldom perching, their legs and feet become atrophied ; they 

 neither hop nor walk, but shuffle clumsily on the ground, and 

 always seem glad to fling themselves free into the air. The 

 shrews and field-mice are a familiar example among animals of 



