XVI. THE SWIFT. 



" True to the kindred points of heaven and 



home" Wordsworth. 



WHAT the gentle bard sang of the English sky-lark 

 is still more applicable to our long- winged, dusky house - 

 fellow who squeals and skims round the constituent 

 buildings of " The City of Palaces " much as his near 

 relative does about English towns and villages : for house- 

 swifts hardly ever alight outside theii- nests, and only go 

 there to rest, sit, and sleep, performing all the other func- 

 tions of life on the wing. The Indian Swift (Cypselus- 

 affinis}, indeed, is neither so loud nor so speedy as the 

 English one (Cypselus apus); this, indeed, could hardly 

 be expected of him as he is not so large a bird ; but he is 

 certainly prettier, being greenish black instead of sooty 

 brown, and with his dark hue set off by a patch of pure 

 white above the tail, which is not forked as in the home 

 bird. As in Swifts generally, there is no noticeable d^ffer- 

 erence between male and female ; and the young are merely 

 duller by reason of a light fringing to their feathers,. One 

 has plenty of opportunities of studying them, as they are 

 unusually happy at falling out of their stuffy nests, com- 

 posed of all sorts of rubbish that the parents can pick up 

 on the wing and stick together against some roof or in a 

 crack with their gummy saliva. Glutinous salivation is 

 indeed a speciality with the Swifts, and the celebrated 



