THE SWIFT 123 
and appears to be equally uncommon in France. A few have 
been shot in Norfolk, and in the high latitudes both of the Old and 
New Worlds it is a common resident on the rocky coasts. It builds 
its nest on the ground, and shares in the great characteristic of the 
family, that, namely, of soaring and singing simultaneously. In 
colouring, it is strongly marked by its black gorget and crest. 
ORDER PICARI/ 
FAMILY CYPSELIDZ 
THE SWIFT 
CYPSELUS APUS 
General plumage sooty brown; chin greyish white; tarsi feathered; bill 
feet, and claws, shining black. Length eight inches; width seventeen 
inches. Eggs pure white. 
THE Swift is, perhaps, the strongest and swiftest, not merely of 
the Swallow tribe, but of all birds ; hence a voyage from Southern 
Africa? to England is performed without overtaxing its strength. 
It stands in need of no rest after this prodigious flight, but imme- 
diately on its arrival starts with a right good willonits pursuit of 
food, as if its journey had been but a pleasant course of training 
for its daily vocation. With respect to temperature, however, 
its powers of endurance are limited ; it never proceeds far north- 
wards, and occasionally even suffers from unseasonably severe 
weather in the temperate climates where it fixes its summer residence. 
Mr. F. Smith, of the British Museum, related in the Zoologist,? 
that, at Deal, on the eighth of July, 1856, after a mild but wet day, the 
temperature suddenly fell till it became disagreeably cold. The 
Swifts were sensibly affected by the atmospheric change; they 
flew unsteadily, fluttered against the walls of the houses, and 
some even flew into open windows. ‘Whilst observing these 
occurrences ’, he says, ‘ a girl came to the door to ask me if I wanted 
to buy a bat; she had heard, she told me, that I bought all kinds 
of bugs, and her mother thought I might want a bat. On her 
producing it, I was astonished to find it was a poor benumbed 
Swift. The girl told me they were dropping down in the streets, 
and the boys were killing all the bats; the church, she said, was 
covered with them. Off I started to witness this strange sight and 
slaughter. True enough; the children were charging them every- 
Livingstone mentions his having seen in the plains north of Kuruman a 
flock of Swifts, computed to contain upwards of 4,000 individuals, 
* September, 1856, p. 5249. 
