THE SWIFT. 89 



been said to be incapable of rising when once down. I 

 have, however, several times experimented with our bird 

 and with one exception always found uninjured birds 

 could get under way, even the two fighters I mentioned 

 above ; but I did get one specimen which apparently 

 could not start till I threw it up in the air. It is not diffi- 

 cult to get hold of Swifts for experiment, for of all the 

 birds I have met with, the Indian Swift is the best hand 

 it getting into a scrape at any age ; several times I have 

 heard the piteous squeals of one in the grip of a crow, and 

 I once extracted a wretched individual from a drain, too 

 weak to fly when he was released ; while getting into a 

 room, forgetting the way out, and so circling round hope- 

 lessly till he drops is quite the ordinary thing for a Swift 

 to do ; I presume if he is driven out of his nest he is alto- 

 gether lost for the time. 



The Swift, indeed, does not compare at all favourably 

 for intelligence with the swallow, whose name or nest he 

 sometimes usurps. Into the anatomical distinctions be- 

 tween the two it is not my intention here to enter ; but 

 roughly Swifts may be distinguished from swallows by 

 having only ten instead of twelve tail-feathers, or if one 

 cannot catch them for the purpose of noting this distinc- 

 tion, by the Swift's habits, noticed above, of not perching 

 away from home. The swallows sit both on dead twigs 

 and telegraph wires, and when they have occasion to come 

 to the ground for mud, can walk as much as they want 

 with their pretty little feet, which are just miniatures of 

 those of ordinary birds. But one does not often see swal- 

 lows in Calcutta to make the comparison, though our 



