216 THE COMMON (OR BLACK) SWIFT. 



escape, although the mouth were opened the next moment. 

 And as there is no needless superfluity in Nature, a bird so 

 formed has little need to walk ; therefore its feet are reduced 

 to stunted toes, armed with claws, by which it can cling to the 

 surface when entering its nest, or feeding its young at the mouth 

 of the narrow hole, often clinging for three or four minutes to 

 allow them to pick out the many flies ; while its gait, even 

 when aided by its loose and seemingly broken wings, is a mere 

 crawl, or hobble, like a seal's on land. Nor can it fly from a 

 flat surface, which has been tested, but it can launch into its 

 native element from a little eminence or brink where it can get 

 the use of its long wings and tail. As it eats, drinks, bathes, 

 collects materials for its nest, and seems to propagate on the 

 wing, it passes more time in the air than any other bird, and, 

 as White says, " performs all functions there save those of 

 sleeping and incubation." When collecting straws and feathers 

 for its nest its inability to walk may seem a fault in Nature, 

 but so great is its dexterity on the wing that it picks these up 

 almost imperceptibly as it skims along. With us the nest is 

 placed in the crevice of a ruined wall, tower, or cliff — the face 

 of the old Castle looking up Castle Street having the appearance 

 of being riddled with small cannon balls from their number, 

 besides those of sparrows. The swift often overmasters the 

 sparrow, as the sparrow overmasters the house and sand- 

 martins. In other places where there are unused sheds, or 

 lofts, or crevices in roofs, they generally breed under the eaves. 

 As many as nine of their nests have been got in some old 

 thatched roofs in a space of 25 feet. They also sometimes breed 

 in the holes of trees. The nest is composed of roots, straw, 

 grass, wool, hair, and feathers ; is bulky, but shallow — about 6 

 inches in diameter and only half-inch thick — loosely formed, 

 but firmly cemented together with the viscid secretion from their 

 mouth. The eggs are two, pure white, about an inch long. I 

 have got their nests with two young ones in the end of June, 

 high up in crevices at the Witch Lake Brae. I had to get a 

 30-feet ladder for the purpose. I expected eggs (as I was then 

 collecting them in 1858). When I brought the raw young ones 

 down and placed them in my little son's hand, who expected 

 the eggs, he let them fall on the sand, saying they made his 

 hand " yuckie." They were unhurt, and I carefully replaced 

 them. 



Unlike the swallows or martins, the swifts have only one 

 brood in the year (at least with us). They cannot possibly 



