THE TYPICAL SWIFTS. 39 



win^s and tail ; under surface of body white, with a band of 

 dark brown across the chest, the feathers composing it being 

 narrowly edged with white ; under tail-coverts and marginal 

 under wing-coverts also edged with white ; flanks broWn and 

 edged with white, before which is a sub-terminal bar of darker 

 brown ; bill black ; feet dull flesh-colour ; iris dark brown. 

 Total length, 8-5 inches; oilmen, 0-5 ; wing, 8-45; tail, 2-5 ; 

 outer feathers, 3-5 ; tarsus, 0*6. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male. Total length, 8-3 inches ; 

 wing, 8-3. 



Young. Similar to the adults, but having white fringes to 

 thd brown feathers. 



Range in Great Britain. Of accidental occurrence only, though 

 it has been recorded more than twenty times. In Scotland it 

 has not yet been noticed, but has occurred in Ireland once, a 

 specimen having been captured near Dublin, in March, 1833. 

 The other instances of its capture have taken place between 

 the months of June and October. 



Eange outside the British Islands. A regular summer visitor to 

 the Alps of Southern Europe, wandering occasionally to 

 Northern France, Germany, and Heligoland. Mr. Howard 

 Saunders states that the species nests in the cliffs of Nolay on 

 the western frontier of Burgundy, as well as in the Vosges and 

 Savoy. In Switzerland it is a well-known species, and its 

 range extends through the mountains of South-eastern Europe 

 as far east as Persia and the Himalayas. Its winter home 

 appears to be in Northern and North-eastern Africa, and it 

 extends also over the whole of the Indian Peninsula and 

 Ceylon. In Eastern and Southern Africa its place is taken by 

 a resident species, M. africanus, which has been generally sup- 

 posed to be the same as M. melba, but it is now separated as a 

 distinct species by Mr. Hartert. 



Habits. This large Swift is a conspicuous feature of the 

 localities it inhabits, and is particularly to be noticed round 

 the Cathedral at Berne, which is tenanted by a large colony of 

 these birds every summer. They arrive in that town in April, 

 and, like other Swifts, often suffer from hunger and cold, if the 

 weather happens to be inclement, and Dr. Fatio and Professor 



