SWIFTS. 173 



known birds, the hirundo melba, or great white-bellied swift of 

 Gibraltar, excepted ; for it is so disposed as to carry " omnes 

 quatuor digitos anticos" all its four toes forward : besides, the 

 least toe, which should be the back toe, consists of one bone 

 alone, and the other three only of two apiece, a construction 

 most rare and peculiar, but nicely adapted to the purposes in 

 which their feet are employed. This, and some peculiarities 

 attending the nostrils and under mandible, have induced a 

 discerning naturalist* to suppose that this species might con- 

 stitute a genus per se. f 



In London, a party of swifts frequent the Tower, playing 

 and feeding over the river just below the Bridge ; others haunt 

 some of the churches of the Borough next the fields, but do 

 not venture, like the house-marten, into the close, crowded 

 part of the town. 



The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on this 

 swallow, calling it ring-sivala, from the perpetual rings, or 

 circles, that it takes round the scene of its nidification. 



Swifts feed on coleoptera, or small beetles with hard cases 

 over their wings, as well as on the softer insects ; but it does 

 not appear how they can procure gravel to grind their food, 

 as swallows do, since they never settle on the ground. Young 

 ones, overrun with li'ippoboscce, are sometimes found, under 

 their nests, fallen to the ground, the number of vermin ren- 

 dering their abode insupportable any longer. They frequent, 

 in this village, several abject cottages ; yet a succession still 

 haunts the same unlikely roofs a good proof this that the 

 same birds return to the same spots. As they must stoop very 

 low to get up under these humble eaves, cats lie in wait, and 

 sometimes catch them on the wing. 



On the 5th of July, 1775, I again untiled part of a roof 

 over the nest of a swift. The dam sat in the nest ; but so 

 strongly was she aifected by natural tirooyri for her brood, 

 which she supposed to be in danger, that, regardless of her 

 own safety, she would not stir, but lay sullenly by them, per- 

 mitting herself to be taken in hand. The squab young we 

 brought down, and placed on the grass-plot, where they 

 tumbled about, and were as helpless as a new-born child. 

 While we contemplated their naked bodies, their unwieldy, 



* John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M.D. 



f This difference of character from that of the swallow tribe, has been 

 laid hold of as a generic distinction by Illiger, under the name of cyp- 

 selus. ED. 



