2 6o FARM AND GARDEN 



breeding from April until October, and making no regular nest. Tbis owl sleeps 

 by day, but is disturbed by tbe slightest noise, although it bears with indifference 

 the ringing of church bells and the striking of clocks, even when sitting close to 

 them. When alarmed, it sits up erect, and wags its head slowly to and fro, and 

 if driven out, it flies, even in the daylight, with great composure to some other 

 shelter, its flight being soft and noiseless, slow, hovering, and generally low. 

 Although nesting in dove-cots, the barn-owl does not harm the proper inhabitants, 

 preferring mice, field-mice, young rats, bats, small birds, beetles, and moths. Few 

 people have an idea of the numbers of mice and other field-vermin destroyed by 

 these owls. It has been found that a pair bring a mouse to their young every 

 quarter of an hour at the least, and in one nest over forty-nine mice were dis- 

 covered, representing what remained of one night's catch. Owing probably to 

 infection with the luminous bacteria in decaying wood, the plumage of barn-owls 

 is itself not unfrequently luminous. 



Another bird frequently taking up its abode in and near human 

 habitations is the swift. The swifts somewhat resemble swallows 

 in appearance when seen at a distance, but their tails consist of only ten 

 feathers, while that of the swallow lias twelve, and in their wings there are ten 

 primaries and eight secondaries, while the swallows have but nine of each ; and 

 their front-toes are all much of the same length, whereas in swallows the middle 

 toe is longer than the rest. Their claws are strong, and their wings very long, 

 and of proportions quite different from those of swallows. Except for a midday 

 rest, swifts are in the air from sunrise to nightfall, driving themselves with a 

 few quick beatings of the wings, and then gliding with the wings almost at a 

 right angle so that the bird looks like a cross-bow. They eat insects, especially 

 beetles, as they fly, and on account of their short, weak legs, seldom alight on 

 the ground of their own will, but even snatch up most of their building material 

 in the air, or from the twigs of trees. The true swifts glue their nests together 

 with their saliva, and generally place them in the holes of trees, walls, and rocks. 

 Their nests are often found in colonies, where violent disputes frequently occur, as 

 they are very quarrelsome birds, and seriously wound one another with their shai-p 

 claws. The ordinary swift (Cypselus apus) was originally an inhabitant of the 

 mountains, where it used to nest in the clefts of rocks ; but it has moved thence 

 to breed on high buildings, in steeples, crevices of ruined walls, under roofs, and in 

 other situations. The nest is a flat dish made of straw, feathers, wool, rags, etc., 

 untidily cemented together and covered with sticky saliva, and contains from 

 two to four long white eggs. The swift's call is a short, shrill scream, uttered as 

 the bird returns to the nest, but never while hunting for insects, and is most 

 frequently heard when the young are flown. Soon after the young are able to 

 fly, they start with their parents on their long journey to South Africa, beginning 

 towards the end of July and continuing on to September or even later. The swift 

 is found as far north as Lapland, where it arrives in June : it is known as a visitor 

 in the Faeroes and the Shetlands, and at Archangel, but does not range very far 

 east of the Urals, where its place is taken by the light-coloured Cliinese species. 

 In Africa it has been reported from the Gold Coast, and it winters in Madagascar 



