356 THE SWIFT 



returned to one colony exactly a week before a single bird was 

 seen at another only three miles away, a fact which seems to show 

 that neighbouring colonies do not necessarily winter in the same 

 localities. 1 



What form of love-display, if any, the species indulges in is not 

 recorded, but there is a certain amount of fighting and quarrelling, 

 which is increased by the fact that the species breeds gregariously. It 

 is for possession of nesting-holes that most of the serious fighting 

 takes place, and this chiefly with other species, notably the starling. 

 The latter has an obvious advantage in his stronger bill, and there can 

 be no doubt that he uses it ; the swift relies solely upon his claws, 

 with which he grapples his opponent, sometimes so firmly that they 

 are difficult to extricate. The fight may take place in the nest, in the 

 air, or on the ground, and possibly, of course, all three places in 

 succession. The issue of the contest, perhaps, depends upon where 

 the swift manages to fix his claws. If into the head and breast of the 

 starling, the latter probably gets the worst of it. This happened 

 in the case of a starling which had been seized in its own nesting- 

 box ; both its head and breast were torn and bleeding. 2 Mr. Aubrey 

 Edwards records another case in which a starling tried to enter and 

 eject a swift from its nesting-hole. It was repulsed with loss of some 

 of its feathers. When the birds grapple in the air, both fall to the 

 ground, and, according to Mr. Jourdain, the swift then usually gets 

 worsted. 3 On one occasion a swift's claws were found so firmly driven 

 into a starling that the two were difficult to separate. The swift was 

 much injured about the head and eyes, apparently by other starlings 

 who had been observed busy about the prostrate combatants. 4 On 

 another occasion twenty starlings are reported as having been seen 

 upon the ground buffeting one swift, which was picked up in a 

 disabled condition. 5 Sparrows and swifts have also encounters for 



1 British Birds, i. 265; Transactions Devon A. A. Science, 1907, p. 79 (E. A. S. Elliot); 

 Bulletin Brit. Ornith. Club, xvii. p. 12. 



* Naumann, Vb'gel Mitteleuropas, iv. 235. s Zooloffiat, 1901, 286. 



1 Field, 1862, xx. 103. 6 Field, 1889, Ixxiii. 754. 



