294. BRITISH BIRDS. 
heard before dawn. It is a very interesting sight to see a company of 
Swifts busy in search of food, or merely toying with each other high up 
in the blue sky, far above the lofty spires and towers, coursing hither and 
thither with marvellous speed and grace. 
Few birds have more perfect command over their movements in the air 
than the Swift. Its flight is performed by a series of rapid beats of its 
long scythe-shaped wings alternated with smooth glidings, during which 
the wings are held out almost at right angles with the body. The shape 
of a Swift as it skims in the air resembles that of an anchor. Its wings 
are narrower and more curved than those of the Swallow, and the neck is 
shorter and the head apparently smaller. Sometimes the birds glide for 
a long distance, then with a few powerful sweeps of their pinions they 
mount higher in the air, or flutter for a few moments ere darting off at 
full speed to the right or left; they wheel round or fly rapidly along, 
their wings often appearing to beat alternately as the birds themselves 
dart from side to side. Throughout the day the Swift continues on the 
wing. In calm fine weather, as well as when it is rough and stormy, it 
busily searches for prey, sometimes at a great altitude, at others near the 
ground ; and the fact that it often hawks for flies in rough stormy weather 
has caused it to be called the Devil Swallow in some localities. The Swift 
is very rarely indeed seen to perch, and then usually on the face of a 
perpendicular cliff or wall or on the rough bark of a hollow oak-trunk. 
It may often be seen passing in and out of the steeples, towers, and rocks ; 
but this is usually for the purpose of feeding its mate or young, and seldom 
to rest. Its wings seem never to tire. The Swift is a bird which often 
changes its feeding-ground. On some days it may be seen in great 
numbers in one locality; on others in quite a different one. Occasionally 
it frequents the pastures or skims over the growing crops, gliding along 
the hedgerows or flying just above the mown grass; and at these times 
the bird is most easily approached, otherwise it is somewhat shy. 
The Swift is generally a comparatively silent bird, but when a large 
number are flying about together it is often very noisy. Its usual note is 
a very shrill and somewhat prolonged scream. This note appears to be 
uttered most frequently when the birds are chasing each other through 
the air in early summer, and when flying in and out of their nests. It 
makes an attempt at song more feeble than that of the Swallow or the 
Martin, but this twitter is seldom heard except when the bird is on its 
nest. 
The Swift is never seen to attempt any progress on the ground; it 
cannot walk, and has been said to be unable to rise from a flat surface ; 
but this isa popular error. Hancock, in his ‘ Birds of Northumberland and 
Durham,’ relates that he placed a bird on the floor of a room, when it 
rolled from side to side and appeared quite helpless, but when placed on 
