SWIFT. 369 



daily to great distances, and may be frequently seen pursuing 

 its prey miles from its abode, as on open spaces like Salis- 

 bury Plain, or following the course of a river when, in its 

 eagerness, it will sometimes seize the artificial fly of the 

 angler, and pay for its impetuosity the penalty of its life. 

 On the ground it has been often said to be almost helpless, 

 and unable to take wing until, by creeping to the edge of an 

 uneven surface, it can launch forth and avail itself of the 

 limbs on which its living depends * ; but this is denied by 

 Mr. Hancock (B. Northumb. &c. p. 82), who has twice seen 

 a captive Swift take flight from the level ground. Couch 

 observes (Mag. Nat. Hist. v. p. 737) that it grasps by its 

 claws in opposing pairs, not bending its toes t but straighten- 

 ing them and decurving its claws underneath them. Placed 

 in a cage it can move in all directions, clinging to the wires, 

 hanging back downwards to the top, aiding its progress with 

 its chin, though not with its mandibles, and roosting upright 

 against the side. During the breeding- season a rank odour 

 pervades this bird. 



The Swift is pretty generally distributed over Great 

 Britain, except in the Outer Hebrides, and occurs occa- 

 sionally in Orkney and Shetland. It is common also in 

 certain localities in Ireland, though never seen, says Thomp- 

 son, in some extensive districts especially of the west. 

 It has been met with a few times in the Faeroes, but is 

 common throughout the greater part of continental Scan- 

 dinavia, breeding as far north as Enara, and Herr Nordvi 

 informs the Editor that two examples were obtained in the 

 autumn of 1876 on the Varanger Fjord. Thence its summer- 

 range extends to the government of Archangel and so to the 

 Ural. Mr. Seebohm. seems not to have found it in Siberia, 

 but it is said to occur in Dauuria and Mongolia, and possibly 

 thence to China. It appears to be common in Turkestan, 

 Afghanistan and Cashmere, and is abundant in some of the 

 valleys of the Western Himalayas, visiting the Punjab in the 



* Aklrovandus long ago remarked (lib. xvii.) " Apodes ut pennis prevalent, 

 sic pedibus degenerant." The flexibility of the axillary joint in the Swift is very 

 singular. Holding one by the body the wings droop as though broken. 



