SWIFTS. 207 



four to six. It is a most alert bird, rising very 

 early, and retiring to roost very late, and is on 

 the wing in the height of summer at least sixteen 

 hours. In the longest days it does not withdraw 

 to rest till a quarter before nine in the evening, 

 being the latest of all day birds. Just before they 

 retire, whole groups of them assemble high in the 

 air, and squeak and shoot about with wonderful 

 rapidity. But this bird is never so much alive as 

 in sultry thundery weather, when it expresses 

 great alacrity, and calls forth all its powers. In 

 hot mornings, several getting together into little 

 parties, dash round the steeples and churches, 

 squeaking as they go, in a very clamorous man- 

 ner : these, by nice observers, are supposed to be 

 males serenading their sitting hens : and not with- 

 out reason, since they seldom squeak till they come 

 close to the walls or eaves, and since those within 

 utter at the same time a little inward note of com- 

 placency. 



When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes 

 forth just as it is almost dark, and stretches and 

 relieves her weary limbs, and snatches a scanty 

 meal for a few minutes, and then returns to her 

 duty of incubation. Swifts, when wantonly and 

 cruelly shot while they have young, discover a 

 little lump of insects in their mouths, which they 

 pouch and hold under their tongue. In general 

 they feed in a much higher district than the other 

 species ; a proof that gnats and other insects do 

 also abound to a considerable height in the air ; 

 they also range to vast distances, since locomo- 

 tion is no labour to them, who are endowed with 

 such wonderful powers of wing. Their powers 

 seem to be in proportion to their levers ; and 

 their wings are longer in proportion than those of 

 almost any other bird. When they mute, or ease 

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