i8oo 



THE PIC A RI AN BIRDS 



exit, so that they are able to fall at once into mid air. For the same reason the 

 materials for the nest are collected from any place except the ground. These con- 

 sist of hair, wool, dead leaves, etc., and especially fragments of paper, the latter be- 

 ing supplied to the birds by the keeper of the tower, who throws them into the air, 

 when they are seized by the swifts, and carried off to their nests. All the materials 

 are cemented with the birds' saliva to form the nest; and the eggs, although usually 

 two, may be three in number. 





Common 

 Swift 



COMMON AND ALPINE SWIFTS. 



(One-half natural size.) 



One of the latest of the summer visitors to Europe, this species ( M. 

 apus), which is figured on the left side of the above illustration, is 

 almost entirely black in color, the only exception being the white throat. 

 In length it measures about seven inches. Wintering in South Africa and Madagas- 

 car, the common swift is represented in the Mediterranean regions by the pale swift 

 (M. murinus} which accompanies it in winter to the Cape. Much that has been 



