SWIFTS. 169 



as it seems, propagates on the wing, it appears to live more in 

 the air than any other bird, and to perform all functions there, 

 save those of sleeping and incubation. 



This hirundo differs widely from its congeners, in laying 

 invariably but two eggs at a time, which are milk-white, long, 

 and peaked at the small end ; whereas the other species lay 

 at each brood from 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 manner: these, by nice observers, are 

 supposed to be males serenading their sitting hens ; and not 

 without 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 complacency.^ 



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. J 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 



* Temminck, the greatest living ornithologist, says, that the swift 

 (cypselus murarius of Temminck) lays four eggs ED. 



f The velocity of the swift's flight is extraordinary; the following 

 curious circumstance is recorded in London's Magazine of Natural 

 History, for November, 1831 : " Some few months ago, being on 

 a visit at Hastings, I stopped, during an early morning's walk, to watch 

 a party of swifts dashing round the ruins of an old castle which overlook 

 the town. While I was thus amusing myself, and admiring the extraor- 

 dinary rapidity of their flight, to my infinite astonishment, one of them 

 flew directly against the castle wall. My surprise was so great, that at 

 first I thought I was mistaken ; but as the spot where the bird fell was 

 not very difficult of approach, I climbed up, and there found the bird 

 fluttering on the ground. I picked it up, but in a very few minutes it 

 died in my hand. It would be difficult to assign a cause* for this curious 

 circumstance. " ED. 



\ Montagu says, that at night, both male and female sit upon the 

 nest. ED. 



