NEST AND EGGS OF THE SWIFT. 



135 



indifferent to their presence, and will permit their movements to be watched without 

 displaying any signs of fear. I well remember a certain street which was copiously 

 favoured by the Swifts, who congi'egated in such great numbers, that they became a 

 positive nuisance on account of the continual screaming which they kept up. The houses 

 were mostly of a very ancient fashion, and their eaves were so low, that a man could 

 introduce his hand into the Swifts' tunnels merely by standing on a chair. Yet the birds 

 cared nothing for their apparent danger, even though their nests were several times roljlied 

 of their contents. At one time, the small boys, who abounded in the neighbourhood, took 

 a fancy to manufacture bows and arrows, with wliich they kept up a persevering fire upon 

 the Swifts, as they went to and fro upon their avocations, or visited and returned from 

 their nests. The birds, however, looked upon these weapons with supreme contempt, and 

 never troubled themselves in the least aliout them. 



The sound wliich these birds utter is of the most piercing description, and can be 

 heard at a very great distance, thus betraying them when they are hawking after the 

 high-fiying insects at such an altitude that then- forms are hardly perceptible to the 

 unassisted eye. "Whether the Swift uttered this cry as a call or serenade to its mate, was 



fW^^ 



SWIKT. — Cf/itsclus apiis. 



once a mooted point, Init is now clearly settled. The bird certainly uses its cry when it 

 is far away from its mate, but it also employs its voice in giving encouragement to its 

 mate as she sits upon her eggs in the dark recesses of her home. Darting closely by the 

 orifice of the hole, the Swift gives forth a loud and piercing scream, as a signal of his 

 presence, and is answered by a soft chattering twitter from the female bird, in acknowledg- 

 ment of his courtesy. While thus employed, the agility with which it sweeps along 

 by the loved spot is truly marvellous, and the manner in which it shoots round any 

 projecting angle is almost incredible to one who has not observed this bird A\hile 

 performing this feat. 



The nest is a very firmly made but yet rude and inartificial structure. The materials 

 of which it is made are generally straw, hay, and feathers, pieces of rag, or any soft 

 and warm substance which the bird may find in its rambles, and when woven into a 

 kind of nest, are firmly cemented together with a kind of giutinnus substance secreted 

 by certain glands. In Norway and Sweden the Swift buikls in hollow trees. The eggs 

 are from two to five in number, not often, however, exceeding three, and in colour they 



