208 SWIFTS. 



They never settle on the ground but through ac- 

 cident, and when down can hardly rise, on account 

 of the shortness of their legs and the length of their 

 wings : neither can they walk, but only crawl ; but 

 they have a strong grasp with their feet, by which 

 they cling to walls. Their bodies being flat, they can 

 enter a very narrow crevice ; and where they cannot 

 pass on their bellies, they will turn up edgewise. 



The particular formation of the foot discriminates 

 the swift from all the British hirundines, and, indeed, 

 from all other known birds, the hirundo melba, or 

 great white-bellied swift of Gibraltar excepted ; for 

 it is so disposed as to carry " omnes quatuor digit os 

 anticos," all its four toes forward : besides, the least 

 toe, which shquld be the back toe, consists of one 

 bone alone, and the other three only of two a-piece, 

 a construction most rare and peculiar, but nicely 

 adapted to the purposes in which their feet are- em- 

 ployed. This, and some peculiarities attending the 

 nostrils and under mandible, have induced a discern- 

 ing naturalist* to suppose that this species might 

 constitute a genus per se-\. 



In London, a party of swifts frequents the Tower, 

 playing and feeding over the river just below the 

 Bridge ; others haunt some of the churches of the 

 Borough next the fields, but do not venture, like the 

 house-martin, into the close, crowded part of the 

 town. 



The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name 

 on this swallow, calling it ring-swala, from the per- 

 petual rings, or circles, that it takes round the scene 

 of its nidification. 



Swifts feed on coleoptera, or small beetles with 



* John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M.D. 

 f The genus Cypselus of Illiger is now generally adopted for 

 this group. It is also the Apus of Belon. W. J. 



