77 



IX. 



OTHER BIRDS. 



The wild shriek of swifts, as they dash and 

 wheel through the air at their topmost speed, 

 seems to express such intense delight in 

 freedom and motion and power, that it 

 imparts something of the same sense of 

 exhilaration to the beholder, at least, I know 

 it is so with me. 



Swifts, or " long-wings," as they are 

 equally well-named in Cheshire, usually find 

 their food at some height in the air, but one 

 day in the beginning of July (1899) I noticed 

 a number of swifts, with a great many swal- 

 lows and sand-martins, skimming the surface 

 of a patch of clover which had been left 

 standing in a field near the garden. I did 

 not discover what it was, but the attraction 

 must have been something unusual, for the 

 number of birds passing and re-passing in 

 the very small space was so extraordinary 

 that it was really difficult to understand how 

 they could avoid collision. All were concen- 

 trated in the one spot, and never seemed to 

 go beyond it for more than a couple of yards. 



In 1896 there were swifts about all August, 

 and I saw a pair on October igih. I was 

 told by a friend who was at Brighton in June, 

 1899, that whenever the band played on the 

 sea front four swifts would appear and fly 



