12i SWIFT. 



but having secured about thirty in a basket, we carried them 

 home with us in the evening, and having placed them in a 

 warm situation during the night, in the morning they were 

 strong enough to fly away, with the exception of two which 

 had died.' 



This bird, from the great length of its wings, and the 

 extreme shortness of its legs, finds it difficult to rise o from 

 a level place; so that when it alights, it is almost always in 

 some situation from which it can drop at once into the air. 

 It may occasionally be seen adhering to the flat surface of 

 a wall, 'the whole length of the toes being straightened by 

 an action not practised by the generality of birds, so as to 

 be opposed to each other in pairs; while the claws are bent 

 beneath, with the points directed inward.' In the 'Magazine 

 of Natural History,' vol. v, page 736, Mr. Couch remarks, 

 'It is not long that Swifts have frequented stations convenient 

 for my observation. At first there were about two pairs; but 

 they have now increased to four or five; and it is singular 

 that, according to my observation, there is always an odd 

 bird.' Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, has remarked a like singu- 

 larity for two successive years at Wolf Hill, near that place. 

 Swifts are sociable birds, but restless, wild, and quarrelsome 

 in the breeding season. 



'Handsome is that handsome does,' says the proverb, and 

 well and truly does the Swift deserve its name. Equalled in 

 its powers of flight, it may be and is, by some other birds, 

 and exceeded, doubtless, for the moment, by the impetuous 

 clash of the Falcon; but for its size and the unceasing con- 

 tinuation of its evolutions, there 'must be few that can compete 

 successfully with it. Wonderfully too, does it guide itself in 

 all the mazes of its seemingly headlong course: one has, 

 however, been known to be killed by being carried inadver- 

 tently against a wall. Like the rest of the Swallows, the 

 Swift both drinks and bathes, or rather dashes while on the 

 wing. It skims along the tranquil surface of the lake and 

 river, and wings its way through the liquid air at a great 

 height the latter in clear and fine weather, the former when 

 the atmosphere is damp and heavy. Rarely indeed do they 

 take rest, except during the short summer night, or some say 

 in the extreme of the 'noontide heat,' or in very stormy 

 weather, when they are supposed to shelter in their holes; 

 but Mr. Thompson points out that at such times they have 

 only shifted their quarters to some more suitable hunting- 



