COMMON SWIFT. 175 



Family CYPSELTD.E. Genus Cyi'selus. 



C O M M ON S W I F T. 



Cypselus apus, LinncEiis. 

 Single Brooded. Laying season, May and early June. 



British breeding area : The Swift is generally 

 distributed throughout most parts of the mainland of 

 the British Islands, becoming rarer in the extreme north 

 of Scotland, and in the south-west of Ireland. 



Breeding habits : The Swift must be classed 

 amongst the latest of our summer migrants, not arriving 

 in the southern districts until the end of April, and a 

 week or more later still in the north. Like the ubiquitous 

 House Martin, the Swift is almost cosmopolitan, and 

 may be met with breeding amongst all kinds of scenery, 

 from the rocky coast to the upland and mountain 

 districts. It is most abundant, however, in the well- 

 cultivated and more thickly populated areas, breeding 

 freely in villages and in quiet country towns and 

 cathedral cities. The Swift unquestionably pairs for 

 life, and yearly returns to its old nesting- places. These 

 are most generally situated in holes in buildings, 

 especially in church towers and cathedrals, and under 

 thatch or eaves of buildings of all kinds. Sometimes a 

 hole in the wall is chosen ; in less populated districts 

 holes in maritime cliffs, in the sides of quarries, and 

 inland in crevices of rocks. Less frequently a hole in 

 the trunk or the branch of a tree is selected. The holes 

 are at varying heights, little choice being apparent, and 

 the bird seems as contented with a hole in the thatch 

 of a low-roofed cottage, almost within arm's-reach, as 

 with one in the lofty walls of more noble edifices. The 

 nest scarcely deserves the name, being merely a few 



