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Wild Life in Wales 



in the way of flying, but must issue from their nursery after 

 the manner of a moth leaving its chrysalis, with powers of 

 flight fully developed. When taken prematurely from the 

 nest, although apparently full grown, and with quills to all 

 appearance as hard as in adults, they seem to have no 

 knowledge of how to fly, but to be as helpless as an insect 

 before its wings have dried properly. If dropped, or 

 thrown into the air, they fall almost like stones, sometimes 

 spreading their wings a little, at others making no attempt 

 at all to break their fall. If, on the other hand, the bird 

 experimented on in this way should chance to have arrived 

 at a knowledgeable state (although not to be distinguished 

 by our eyes from one which has not) it will go off at once 

 like an adult, as if it had spent a lifetime on the wing, 

 though in reality it has probably never before had its head 

 outside its dark abode ! It has always seemed to me one 

 of the marvels of nature that this power, or knowledge of 

 how to fly, should come to the young Swifts thus, " like 

 a thief in the night," as it were, and it is, I think, a 

 peculiarity shared by no other birds in this country. 

 Whether anything of the same kind has ever been noticed 

 in the tropical allies of the Swift the Humming Birds 

 I do not know, but I should think it probable that their 

 affinities may extend so far. 



A crevice in the perpendicular face of rock or masonry, 

 from which they can at once drop into space, forms, no 

 doubt, the ideal nesting site for a Swift ; but in such places 

 as the loft over a church, a number may sometimes be 

 found nesting together on the floor, and at various distances 

 from the slit, or window, that gives them access. In one 

 such place, I have, in company with the worthy minister, 

 often watched a noisy crowd of Swifts wheeling round his 

 old Abbey Church, a dozen, or a score of them, ever and 

 anon pouring, pell-mell, over the jalousie boarding which 

 protected a small ventilation window in its western gable. 

 The boards sloped downwards, like a Venetian blind when 

 closed, and the window was several feet above the level of 

 the flooring ; and as there was no other access for light into 

 the loft, the birds slid from bright sunshine outside, into 



