‘ALPINE SWIFT. 297 
CYPSELUS MELBA. 
ALPINE SWIFT. 
(Prats 18.) 
Hirundo major hispanica, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 504 (1760). 
Hirundo melba, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 345 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Latham, Gmelin, (Bonaparte), (Naumann), (Brehm), (Dresser), (Newton), &e. 
Hirundo alpina, Scop, Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 166 (1769), 
Micropus alpinus (Scop.), Wolf, Taschenb. i. p. 282 (1810). 
Cypselus melba (Linn.), Lilig. Prodr. p. 230 (1811). 
Hirundo gularis, Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. x. p. 99 (1817). 
Cypselus gutturalis, Vieill. Tabl. Encycl. Méth. p. 534 (1822). 
Cypselus alpinus (Scop.), Meyer, Taschenb. Zus, uw. Ber. p- 255 (1822). 
Micropus melba (Linn.), Bote, Isis, 1844, p. 165, Sig 
Micropus gutturalis (Viedll.), Bote, Isis, 1844, p. 165. 
The Alpine Swift has been obtained so frequently in the British Islands 
that a detailed account of each capture is unnecessary. The earliest in- 
stance known is that of an example which was shot off the south coast of 
Treland about the middle of the year 1829, and came into the possession 
of Mr. Sinclaire, by whom it was sent to Selby, who recorded the 
particulars of its capture (Edinb. Journ. Nat. and Geogr. Se. n. s. iii. 
p. 170, 1831). Since this date about a score of specimens have been 
obtained, many of which were procured in Ireland, but the greater number 
in England, where it has occurred as far north as Durham ; but it appears 
never to have been noticed in Scotland. 
The Alpine Swift breeds in the alpine districts of Europe south of the 
Baltic, in the Ural Mountains its range extending up to lat. 55°. South 
of the Mediterranean it breeds in the mountains of North Africa and 
Abyssinia*. Hastwards its range extends through Asia Minor, Palestine, 
West Turkestan, the West Himalayas, and the mountain-ranges of West 
India and Ceylon. In Abyssinia, India, and Ceylon it is said to be a 
resident ; but further north it is only a summer visitor, leaving in autumn 
to winter in Damara Land, the Cape Colony, and Natal. In the cold 
season it is occasionally seen in most parts of India as far east as Calcutta; 
and it has occurred more or less accidentally on migration in Denmark, 
Heligoland, and various parts of the plains of Germany as far north as 
Berlin. The Alpine Swift has no near ally in Asia; but in the Bogos 
* Dresser, in his ‘ Birds of Europe,’ states that Blanford met with this bird in the plains 
of Abyssinia; but this is a blunder, Dresser having inadvertently transferred Blanford’s 
remarks on the Common Swift to the Alpine Swift. 
