SWIFTS 



SWIFTS are extraordinary birds ; there are no 

 others like unto them; they are the most mys- 

 terious of the many mysterious products of 

 natural selection; their athletic feats transcend 

 the descriptive powers of the English language. What 

 adjective is there of suitable application to a bird that 

 speeds through the air without an appreciable effort at 

 the rate of a hundred miles an hour, that traverses a 

 thousand miles every day of its existence ? 



These wonderful birds are everywhere common, yet 

 much of their life history requires elucidation. 



Probably not one man in fifty is able to distinguish 

 between a swallow and a swift. Some think that "swift" 

 and "swallow" are synonymous terms, while others 

 believe that a swift is a kind of black swallow. As a 

 matter of fact, the swift differs more widely from the 

 swallow than the crow does from the canary. There is, 

 it is true, a very strong professional likeness between 

 the swift and the swallow, but this likeness is purely 

 superficial ; it is merely the resemblance engendered by 

 similar modes of obtaining a livelihood. Both swallows 

 and swifts feed exclusively on minute insects which they 

 catch upon the wing, hence both have a large gape, 

 light, slender bodies, and long, powerful wings. But 

 speedy though it be, the swallow is not in the same 



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