934 



SWIFT 



almost wholly Black Swan of Australia, have a higher morphological 

 rank. Excluding from consideration the little-known (7. davidi, of 

 the five or six ^ species of the Northern, hemisphere four present the 

 curious character, somewhat analogous to that found in certain 

 Cranes (p. Ill), of the penetration of the sternum by the 

 TRACHEA nearly to the posterior end of the keel, whence it returns 

 forward and upward again to revert and enter the lungs ; but in 

 the two larger of these species, when adult, the loop of the trachea 

 between the walls of the keel takes a vertical direction, while in the 

 two smaller the bend is horizontal, thus afi'ording an easy mode of 

 recognizing the respective species of each.^ Fossil remains of more 

 than one species of Swan have been found. The most remarkable 

 is C. falconeri, which was nearly a third larger than the Mute Swan, 

 and was described from a Maltese cave by Prof. Parker {Trans. Zool. 

 Soc. vi. pp. 119-124, pi. 30). 



SWIFT,^ a bird so called from the extreme speed of its flight, 

 which apparently exceeds that of any other British species, the 

 Hirundo opus of Linnaeus and Cypselus apus or murarius of most 

 modern ornithologists,^ who have at last learned that it has only 

 an outward resemblance but no near affinity to the Swallow 

 (p. 926) or its allies. Well known as a summer-visitor throughout 

 the greater part of Europe, it is one of the latest to return from 

 Africa, and its stay in the country of its birth is of the shortest, for 



1 The C. unwini doubtfully described by Mr. Hume {Ihis, 1871, pp. 412, 413) 

 from India, though recognized by Dr. Stejneger [ut suprd), seems to be only the 

 immature of the Mute Swan. 



^ The correct scientific nomenclature of the Swans is a matter that offers many 

 difficulties, but they are of a kind far too technical to be discussed here. Dr. 

 Stejneger, in his learned "Outlines of a Monograph" of the group [ut suprA), 

 has employed much research on the subject, with the result (which can only be 

 deemed unhappy) of upsetting nearly all other views hitherto existing, and pro- 

 pounding some which few ornithologists outside of his adopted country are likely 

 to accept. In the text, as above written, care has been taken to use names which 

 will cause little if any misunderstanding, and this probably is all that can be 

 done in the present state of confusion. 



2 The bird has many local names, of which perhaps Deviling and Screech- 

 OwL are the commonest. Black Martin, House-Martin and Martlet are 

 also used, the last especially in Heraldry. 



* An attempt has been lately made to revive the generic name Microptts con- 

 ferred in 1810 by Meyer and Wolf (Taschenb. i. p. 280), ignorant that it was 

 already used in Botany, and by the laudable practice of those days inadmissible, 

 as Meyer himself apparently recognized when he, in 1815 (foj. Liv- und 

 Esthlamls, p. 143), substituted Brachypus for it ; but meanwhile lUiger had como 

 in with his Cypselus, which Meyer in 1822, in the supplement to his former work 

 (p. 255), accepted. Both Microims and Brachypus have since been applied 

 in several zoological and even ornithological groups ; but the use of either is 

 contrary to customary law. 



