SWALLOWS AND CHURCHES 199 



born within sound of Bow Bells," he returned with 

 pride. That explained his invincible ignorance. But 

 the Sussexian, though he knows a great deal more 

 than a cockney, also makes some funny mistakes. 

 One day at Lewes I noticed a lot of swifts, about 

 twenty-four birds, rushing round and round in their 

 usual mad way, and at each turn coming down and 

 passing so close to the gable of a stone house, a public 

 school near the station, as to touch the stone wall 

 a yard or two below the roof with their wings. At 

 intervals after five or six rushes they would scatter 

 all about the sky, then in a minute or two gather 

 and resume their mad flight over the same aerial race- 

 course, touching the wall again each time as they 

 swept by. I presently noticed that half a dozen 

 workmen, standing close by in a group, were also 

 observing the birds and talking about them, " I 

 wonder what these mad birds are after ? " I said, 

 going up to the men. One of them undertook to 

 enlighten me. " They are swifts," he said, " but 

 here we call them Black Jacks. They are after insects 

 — that's what they feed on. I mean flies," he kindly 

 explained. He then went on to say that when swifts 

 are seen rushing round in a bunch at one spot it is 

 because flies are most abundant there, and that the 

 birds catch many more flies than they can eat. He 

 once saw a swift fluttering on the ground, unable 

 to rise, and picking it up he found that flies were 

 swarming all over it. So many flies had this swift 



