U4 



THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



Order PICARI^. 



Family CYPSELID^. 



Swift : Cypselus apiis. Locally, " Shriek Owl," " Screek Owl,"' 

 'Deviling" (E.A.F.), and "Tommy Uevil." 



A common summer visitor in all parts of the county, breeding 

 wherever there are suitable nesting holes in either ancient or modern 



buildings. It usually arrives- 

 about the end of April and leaves- 

 during August, though indivi- 

 duals may sometimes be seen in 

 September, and occasionally 

 even in October. Mr. Sackett 

 notes the first in 1884 on May 

 loth, in 1887 on May 12th, and 

 in 1888 on May 6th. He also 

 observed a very late specimen 

 on September 12th, 1887. In 

 that year a pair were observed 

 near Harwich on September i6th, and another pair at Stony Pointy, 

 near Walton-on-the-Naze, on the 19th (29. Oct. i). I saw a pair at 

 Audley End on August 25th, 1880, and one at Maldon on Septem- 

 ber 4th, 1888. T. S. Tiller shot one at Great Chesterford on 

 October 27th, 1877 (29. Nov. 3), an extremely late date. Another 

 was seen at Colchester on September 23rd, 1878 (29. Oct. 5). 



At Harwich it breeds commonly and seems to be increasing (Kerry). Around 

 Broomfield, where they are often called " Skreek Owls," they are decidedly com- 

 mon, and considerable flocks of them may often in the late summer be seen 

 wheeling and dashing about overhead, screeching loudly. Their abundance is 

 due, partly at least, to the fact that a number of different houses and cottages 

 built by the late Mr. Thomas Christy, about forty years ago, were all roofed in a 

 manner which left open eaves, affording them excellent nesting sites. 



Mr. Thomas Catchpool records (23. 1499) that at the end of June, 1835, on a 

 cold, wet day, he and some friends found numbers of Swifts, stupefied by the 

 cold, clinging to ledges of the cliffs at Walton-on-the-Naze. " In some places 

 [says Mr. Catchpool] they were settled one upon another, four or five deep, and 

 we literally took them up in handfuls, five or six together. So numerous were 

 they, we could probably have caught some hundreds." Edward Jesse relates a 

 very similar occurrence. He says {^Scenes and Tales of Country Life, p. 169) that 



