47 
Family CYPSELID.E. 
The Swifts have been divided into two subfamilies, Cypseline and 
Cheturine. They are found both in the New and the Old World. 
Two of the Cyspseline occur in Britain; and one of the Cheturine 
having in a single instance been killed here, it becomes necessary 
to include it in the list of our avifauna. 
Genus CrpsEtvs. 
AOE OVPSEDUSUMPUS Hs.1 1, ih) oo (Oo ewe eo. Wool PEELE. 
SwIFt. 
Arrives in May and departs southward in August or the early part 
of September, and is therefore a true migrant. 
Ata OVPSEGUSEMELBAT =e’) sf sean ee). 2 ee ee Vole lie live 
ALPINE SwIrFt. 
A common migrant on the continent of Europe, particularly in its 
central and southern parts; it also inhabits Africa and India, and is 
an accidental visitor to Britain. 
Genus CH2TuURA. 
The members of this genus are generally dispersed over America ; 
nor are they absent from Asia, Africa, or Australia. They have been 
divided into several subgenera: that of Hirundapus has been assigned 
to the single species which in a solitary instance has found its way 
to Britain ; but I retain it under the older term by which it is more 
generally known. 
49. CHAETURA CAUDACUTA. 
Spine-tailed Swift. 
The solitary example above alluded to was “ shot about 9 p.m. on 
the 8th of July, 1846, by a farmer’s son, near Colchester, in Essex ; 
he saw it first in the evening of the 6th. He tells me it occasionally 
flew to a great height, was principally engaged in hawking for flies 
over a small wood and neighbouring trees; being only wounded, it 
cried very much as it fell, and, when he took it up, clung so tightly 
to some clover as to draw some stalks from the ground” (T. Catch- 
pool, jun., in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1846, p. 1493). 
If Indian, Chinese, and Australian examples are identical, as I 
believe they are, then the range of the present species 1s wide indeed ; 
but possessing, as it does, vast wing-powers, there is no reason why 
it should not pass and repass from one country to another with the 
greatest ease. Distance being mere child’s play to a bird so largely en- 
dowed with the means of flight, its accidental occurrence in England 
need not excite surprise. 
