A Rising Generation, 41 



gushes of musical song are so familiar earlier in the 

 summer, are busy with their first broods. These will 

 soon be ready to shift for themselves, and the parents 

 will then begin to think about a second family. 



The swift, who is different in nearly all its ways, and 

 indeed is not a swallow at all, or even a near relative, 

 has but one set of eggs in the year only two or three 

 at that and these take up an unusual amount of 

 time. For, although hatched in June, the young will 

 be fed by the old birds almost until the whole family 

 are ready to leave the country. 



The swift comes to us late from his winter retreat 

 in Africa, and, for a month or more, spends nearly all 

 his time in the air, now soaring high overhead, now 

 with half a score of dark companions careering round 

 his haunts with exultant screams, at a pace that 

 proves beyond dispute his empire of the air. The 

 swift never intentionally alights on the ground. Its 

 whole life, except during intervals of rest or when 

 hatching its eggs or feeding its young, is passed on the 

 wing. Not only is all its food taken thus, but the 

 very materials of its nest are caught up as the bird 

 skims along the ground. 



It is not easy to estimate the speed of flight ; but it 

 has been said that a swallow can probably cover at 

 least seventy miles within the hour ; an eider duck 

 ninety; a peregrine falcon, in pursuit of prey, a 

 hundred and fifty. 



But the powers of the swift are undoubtedly much 



