THE SWIFT. 201 



well with our bird as that in Bewick's supplement, 

 excepting that the legs of those which I have seen 

 are of a red brown colour, the bill black, and the 

 lower mandible margined with white ; but age and 

 sex occasion many changes in tints and shades. 

 This species possesses none of those beauties of 

 plumage so observable in the common starling ; and 

 all those fine prismatic tintings that play and wan- 

 der over the feathers of the latter, are wanting in the 

 former. Its whole appearance is like that of a 

 thrush, but it presents even a plainer garb; its 

 browns are more dusky and weather-beaten ; and 

 for the beautiful mottled breast of the throstle, it 

 has a dirty white, and a dirtier brown. I scarcely 

 know any bird less conspicuous for beauty than the 

 solitary thrush : it seems like a bleached, way-worn 

 traveller, even in its youth. 



The great diversity in character in birds, the 

 short movements, and almost local sphere of action 

 in some, and the ceaseless transition of others; the 

 lonely retirement of a part, and the fearless domesti- 

 cation of others with man, must commonly be re- 

 marked by many ; and the chief motive which pro- 

 bably influences much of this variety of deportment 

 may arise from the nature of the food on which 

 they subsist. There is one of these creatures with 

 which we are all acquainted in his season, whose 

 rambling nature and restless flight are always 

 subjects of admiration, the swift (hirundo apus\ 

 which visits us about the beginning of May, and 

 soon after, as, having no time to lose, commences 



