THE SWIFT 
CYPSELUS APUS 
Loca names in surrounding counties: ‘ Shriek Owl,” 
“ Deviling,” “ ‘Tommy Devil” (Essex). 
Sratus 1n British Avirauna: A common and widely 
distributed summer visitor. 
RapiaL DisTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 
Pauw’s: The Swift is another bird that formerly bred in 
the very heart of the city, on the Tower, and in the towers 
of some of the churches in the Borough. I have seen 
the Swift in such central spots as Battersea, Kensington, 
Lord’s cricket ground, and Regent’s Park; further afield 
at Clapham, Dulwich, Peckham, Greenwich, and Victoria 
Park, but do not know whether it breeds in any of them. 
Of the more rural suburbs, however, in which it regularly 
does so, I may mention Willesden (in the tower of the old 
parish church), Harlesden, Kilburn, Putney, Wimble- 
don, Tooting, Streatham, Sydenham, Eltham, Woolwich, 
Wanstead, Epping, Enfield, Hendon, and Wembley. It 
is also a regular visitor to the Harrow, Hanwell, Southall, 
Hounslow, Richmond, Kingston, Merton, and Banstead 
districts. In fact, there are few if any of the more rural 
suburbs that the Swift does not visit occasionally, if it 
does not regularly nest in them, and as we get into the 
outlying areas its presence calls for no special record. 
Taking into consideration the facts of its Metropolitan 
distribution the bird must migrate regularly over the 
very central parts of London. I have seen small parties 
obviously on passage over Paddington, St. John’s Wood, 
and above the Stadium. 
Although popularly classed as one of the Swallows, 
the Swift is but remotely related to them, its nearest 
allies being, perhaps, the Humming Birds of the New 
World. ‘The Swift is one of the latest summer migrants, 
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