272 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



ber, somewhat elongated, and of a pure and spotless 

 white. The young Swifts are tended by their parents 

 after they leave the nest, and I have reason to believe 

 the young and their parents roost every night in the 

 nesting-hole until the time of migration arrives. 



The food of the Swift is insects, and I sometimes see 

 them coursing over the grass fields, hawking for various 

 small beetles. I often ponder over the unerring instinct 

 that leads birds to seek that food best adapted to them. 

 I see the Chaffinch on the manure heaps ; the Wagtails 

 on the pastures ; Swallows and Swifts darting through 

 the circumambient air ; Sandpipers on the mudflats ; 

 Sparrows near man's habitation ; Ducks seeking for 

 water plants ; Creepers and Woodpeckers on ancient 

 timber ; Linnets and many other Finches obtaining 

 the seeds of most noxious weeds ; and Falcons preying 

 upon the helpless of their own vast feathered race. In a 

 word, all seeking for that food Nature has best provided 

 them with suitable appliances for obtaining. 



The Swift, as I previously stated, is one of the last 

 birds to arrive here in spring, and, as is frequently the 

 case with such birds, it is one of the first to leave 

 us in the autumn. Unlike the Swallows and Martins, 

 you never see the Swift in such vast flocks preparing 

 for their autumnal migration ; yet the Swift is gregarious, 

 even as much so as the Swallow. Soon after the Cuckoo's 

 departure, we may look for the absence of the Swift, and 

 by the latter end of August, or beginning of September 

 at farthest, we suddenly miss them from their old haunts. 

 Formerly it was gravely supposed that the Swift, and 

 all birds of the Swallow kind, lay dormant in crevices of 

 rocks and buildings throughout the winter, and were 

 again called into life and animation by the genial pre- 

 sence of a vernal sun. But when naturalists gave the 



