2io Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



but laterly has been placed in a family composed of the swifts, 

 and next to the family of hummingbirds on account of cer- 

 tain anatomical peculiarities, and particularly because of the 

 absence of the singing muscles in the lower larynx. The male 

 and female are alike in appearance. They resemble the swal- 

 lows in general form and habits. The bill is more suddenly 

 curved, unprovided with bristles at the base, and is brown; 

 eye black, surrounded by a bare blackish skin or orbit; color 

 above a sooty brown with a greenish tinge, a little paler on 

 the rump ; wing, black, extremely long, curved, and when 

 closed extends an inch and a half beyond the tail ; tail, black, 

 very short, rounded, and each feather ends in a spine like 

 that of the woodpecker; underparts paler with the chin and 

 throat grayish ; tarsi short and weak, and are more or less 

 feathered ; toes black, short and thick as in no other bird, and 

 all four of them may be extended forward ; claws curved and 

 strong. 



The swift is a migrant who comes north in April and re- 

 turns south in October. Major Bendire says that its range ex- 

 tends through "Eastern North America ; north in the south- 

 ern portions of the Dominion of Canada to about latitude 50 

 degrees ; in the interior, in Northwestern Manitoba, to about 

 latitude 52.30 degrees, and probably still farther; west in the 

 United States to eastern North and South Dakota, eastern 

 Nebraska and Kansas, the Indian Territory and Texas ; south 

 in winter to Jalapa, Vera Cruz, Cozumel and Yucatan, Mex- 

 ico and probably still farther." Note that he says "probably." 

 This is significant. Thereby hangs a mystery, and who will 

 solve it? Gilbert White, the great English naturalist, was in- 

 terested in it. In his poem entitled The Naturalist's Summer 

 Evening Walk, he writes : 



"To mark the swift in rapid, giddy ring, 

 Dash round the steeple, unsubdued of wing; 

 Amusive birds! Say, where is your hid retreat, 

 When the frost rages and the tempest beats? 

 Whence your return by nice instinct led, 

 When spring, soft season, lifts her bloomy head? 

 Such, baffled searches mock men's prying pride, 

 The God of Nature is your secret guide." 



