122 SWIFT. 
tkney Islands, the Rev. George Low, in his ‘Fauna Orca- 
densis,’ ‘mentions that he had once or twice seen specimens. 
Dr. Bailie and Mr. Heddle, in their ‘Natural History of 
Orkney,’ also record that ‘on the 25th. of July, 1830, a flock 
of about forty were seen flymg south. Another flock appeared 
in Sanday, on the 27th. of September, in the same year. On 
the 8th. of July, 1836, Mr. Strang shot one at Fair Isle; and 
one was caught alive by the same gentleman at Lopness, on 
the 9th. of June, 1839. During the summer of 1847, a pair 
were observed flying about St. ‘Magnus’ Cathedral, on which 
most likely they had their nest.’ 
The favourite haunts of Swifts are buildings in towns and 
villages, church-steeples, fortresses, and castles, 
The Seats migratory like all our Swallows, arrives among 
us later than the others, namely, not until the beginning of 
May, and leaves us in the beginning or middle of August. 
This is the rule; but exceptions to it, as a matter of course, 
have occurred, do occur, and will occur. Thus, the Rev. 
Gilbert White, in the year 1781, noticed that one pair of 
Swifts remained after all the others had, on or about the 
Ist. of August, taken their departure. In a few days but 
one bird remained, the female, as imagined; but there is 
nothing to shew that it was not the male. Whichever it 
was, 1t continued feeding its young, which were then dis- 
covered, until the 27th. of the month, when both parent and 
children disappeared. Mr. Yarrell imagines that the other 
parent forsook its family for its companions; but in the 
absence of proof of this, it will be, as far as concerns the 
bird, a more charitable supposition, and certainly very far 
from an impossible one, that some reckless shooter cut him 
or her off. 
Mr. J. B. Ellman, of Lewes, saw two on the 29th. of August, 
1850. The Rev. J. C. Atkinson saw three or four companies 
of Swifts near Eyemouth, on the 380th. of August, 1843, 
‘evidently winging their way southwards. The first lot con- 
sisted of four or hve individuals, the next of twelve or fifteen. 
One company loitered a little over a field of beans, but none 
of them remained long in sight. For the most part their 
line of flight seemed to lie along the edge of the coast; for 
few of them ranged to any distance, either seaward or ralame 
On the 3lst. one was seen; and on September the 3rd. two 
or three at a short distance over the sea.’ F. Wayne, Esq. 
observed one at Much Wenlock, Shropshire, on the 28th. of 
