NEST OF SWIFT 223 



their homes. The nest consists exclusively, I 

 believe, of the dtbris of the thatch in which it is 

 built, or of feathers and other material carried in 

 by other birds who have used the hole before, 

 cemented together into a very rough saucer, by the 

 viscous saliva of the bird's own mouth. It contains 

 two long white eggs, never more ; and is always built 

 close to the point of entry, so that there is no 

 laborious crawl, either from it or to it, and the bird 

 can drop down at once from it into mid-air, often 

 all but reaching the ground, and sometimes, I fear, 

 quite reaching it, before she can find her wings. 

 What is still more remarkable and I have never 

 seen the peculiarity noticed by any one the old 

 bird never, under any circumstances, cared to leave 

 her nest, while I was climbing the ladder, to see 

 how it was getting on, but calmly or even callously 

 sat on, allowing herself to be removed, without so 

 much as a flutter of the wings or the faintest effort to 

 escape, and to be held in my hand while I examined, 

 at my leisure, her big round eye, able in the middle 

 of her flight, at the rate of a hundred miles an hour, 

 to detect and intercept an insect which you could 

 only just see with the naked eye, as it came 

 crawling out, still alive, from her huge gaping 

 mouth, crammed with scores of them ; the one 



