THE SWIFT. 865 



is, however, remarkably adroit; its claws are well 

 adapted for holding, and it can move edge-ways, or, in 

 fact, almost in any direction. The nest is constructed 

 much in the same manner as that of the common swal- 

 low, but the swift prefers more elevated and retired 

 situations, such as lofty precipices, steeples and towers, 

 and beneath the arches of bridges. The materials of it 

 are very diversified. Grass, moss, bits of threads, 

 feathers, (which they sometimes pull very dexterously 

 from other birds,) in short, any light substance, animal 

 or vegetable, that can be soaked, and cemented to the 

 mass of the nest, by that viscid substance secreted in 

 the throat and bill of the bird. They defend their nests 

 with great bravery, return instinctively to the same 

 ones for successive summers ; and if the swallow, which 

 generally comes a little earlier, should venture to take 

 possession, they drive her off the instant that they 

 come. They even take possession of the nests of 

 swallows, though the building by these birds is not ac- 

 counted close and fine enough for their purposes, until 

 the interior has received a coating of their own cement. 

 The female swift sits very patiently upon her eggs, 

 and never leaves them during the day, as then they 

 would be exposed to depredators ; but dashes forth at 

 dusk, hunts for her supper with great rapidity; and 

 then returns to her charge. The young swifts remain 

 in the nest for five or six weeks, during which time 

 both parents attend to them with the most constant 

 affection, and feed them regularly five or six times a 

 day. In the course of this, the parent-birds are greatly 

 exhausted, and fall off very much both in their flesh 

 and their plumage. When they first arrive they are 

 2 i3 



