176 NATURAL HISTORY 



rapid a life, or by what? This is one of those incidents in 

 natural history that not only baffles our searches, but almost 

 eludes our guesses ! 



These hirundines never perch on trees or roofs, and so never 

 congregate with their congeners. They are fearless while 

 haunting their nesting places, and are not to be scared with a 

 gun ; and are often beaten down with poles and cudgels as 

 they stoop to go under the eaves. Swifts are much infested 

 with those pests to the genus called hippoboscce hirundinis ; 

 and often wriggle and scratch themselves, in their flight, to 

 get rid of that clinging annoyance. 



Swifts are no songsters, and have only one harsh screaming 

 note ; yet there are ears to which it is not displeasing, from 

 an agreeable association of ideas, since that note never occurs 

 but in the most lovely summer weather. 



They never settle on the ground but through accident ; 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 British hirundines; and indeed from all other known 

 birds, the hirundo melba, or great white-bellied swift of Gibral- 

 tar, excepted ; for it is so disposed as to carry " omnes quatuor 

 digitos anticos " all it's four toes forward ; besides the least 

 toe, which should be the back-toe, consists of one bone alone, 

 and the other three only of two apiece. A construction most 

 rare and peculiar, but nicely adapted to the purposes in which 

 their feet are employed. This, and some peculiarities attend- 

 ing the nostrils and under mandible, have induced a discern- 

 ing g naturalist to suppose that this species might constitute a 

 genus per se*. 



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



* [There can be no hesitation as to the generic distinction of the swifts 

 from the Hirundines properly so called. The generic name given by Illi- 

 ger, Cypschis, is now universally received. But not only are the swifts 



