1 8 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



of an old house on the quay, facing the south, about 

 a hundred yards or so north of the Haven Bridge. 

 Regularly they put in an appearance about the 

 middle of May, the dates varying slightly, according 

 to the winds, from the 12th to 17th. In course of 

 time about thirty individuals may be counted ; and 

 their elders' early summer sweeps and curvetings 

 are noisily repeated by the younger members of the 

 community. Swifts are singularly rhythmical in their 

 merry wheelings to and fro, the whole body curving 

 off to the right or left ; or in mounting with circular 

 rushes in unison, and as if impelled by a common 

 impulse. In fine weather and again in stormy they 

 are often given to vociferous screaming, as if rioting 

 were necessary to express the joy of living their 

 shrill notes seem to imply. Various high-flying flies 

 appear to be their favourite prey : I have found a 

 teaspoonful of flies stowed away in the gullet of a 

 dead Swift. The St. Mark's Fly (Biblo marci) is 

 assiduously pursued. On two occasions I have 

 found dead Swifts on the steeple balcony, at the 

 base of the spire of St. Nicholas Church; and in 

 each instance the Blowfly had discovered the 

 carcasses, a depression in the atmosphere having 

 most probably carried the scent earthwards. The 



