CONCERNING SWIFTS 165 



together, and their squeaking sounds the more 

 distinct since other birds have retired for the 

 night. Now they must be watched carefully, if 

 indeed they can be seen at all ; for they may 

 wander out of sight across the sky before making 

 the final ascent. Their wings have now a peculiar 

 fluttering motion like those of an ascending lark ; 

 it is continuous, and the swifts, instead of wheeling 

 round and round in a cluster, seem to prefer to lie 

 head-to-wind. Against the loftiest white clouds 

 their movements may yet be clearly traced, 

 especially through a good glass. Up and up they 

 go, fading smaller each moment, till even the 

 power of the glass is overcome, and the tiny 

 specks vanish for the night. 



If you have been holding a glass to the eyes all 

 this time you now drop your arms wearily enough, 

 to find that the dusk has fallen ; the bats are out, 

 and the evening mist is rising, but the swifts must 

 now be nearly on a level with those remote flecks 

 of cloud, which, at an immense height, are yet 

 snowy in the sunshine. 



A writer in the Field, the redoubtable " Smooth- 

 bore," threw out the suggestion that the swifts 



