NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 81 



The particular formation of the foot discriminates the 

 swift from all the British hirundines ; and indeed from all 

 other known birds, the hirundo melba, or great white-bellied 

 swift of Gibraltar, excepted ; for it is so disposed as to 

 carry " omnes quatuor digitos anticos" all it's four toes 

 forward ; besides, the least toe, which should be the back- 

 toe, consists of one bone alone, and the other three only of 

 two apiece. A construction most rare and peculiar, but 

 nicely adapted to the purposes in which their feet are 

 employed. This, and some peculiarities attending the 

 nostrils and under mandible, have induced a discerning 1 

 naturalist to suppose that this species might constitute a 

 genus per se? 



In London a party of swifts frequents the Tower, playing 

 and feeding over the river just below the bridge : others 

 haunt some of the churches of the Borough, next the fields ; 

 but do not venture, like the house-martin, into the close 

 crowded part of the town. 



The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on 

 this swallow, calling it ring swala, from the perpetual rings 

 or circles that it takes round the scene of it's nidification. 



Swifts feed on coleoptera, or small beetles with hard cases 

 over their wings, as well as on the softer insects ; but it 

 does not appear how they can procure gravel to grind 

 their food, as swallows do, since they never settle on the 

 ground. Young ones, overrun with hippoboscce, are some- 

 times found, under their nests, fallen to the ground ; the 

 number of vermin rendering their abode insupportable 

 any longer. They frequent in this village several abject 

 cottages ; yet a succession still haunts the same unlikely 

 roofs : a good proof this that the same birds return to the 

 same spots. As they must stoop very low to get up under 

 these humble eaves, cats lie in wait, and sometimes catch 

 them on the wing. 



1 John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M.D. [G. W.] 



1 Scopoli made a genus, Apus, for the Swifts, but as this is practically the same 

 name as Apos, proposed by him previously for a genus of Crustacea, the name 

 to be used for the Swifts is Cypselus of Illiger. [R. B. S.] 



VOL. II. L 



