SPORT IN BUTE. 199 



martins began to build in the eaves of the old tower. Saw, 

 on the 18th, the first and only pair of swifts I have noticed 

 here this season. Heard yesterday morning, at twenty-five 

 minutes past three, two cuckoos, two landrails, a thrush, a 

 sedge-warbler, and other birds, all singing and calling at the 

 same moment. The landrail in the clover field, and the 

 sedge-warbler among the laurels, never cease their love-call 

 during the darkest night." " Friday, June 9th. The pair of 

 swifts attempting to take possession of the same martin's nest 

 they stormed last year." 



That season the bold attack of the swifts was finally re- 

 pulsed by the determined resistance of the martins. From 

 coming early the previous year, the black pirates had little 

 difficulty in seizing the newly-made home of the industrious 

 builders ; but this time the martins fought with desperation in 

 defence of their young as well as home, so the pair of swifts, 

 after their defeat, took easy possession of an empty martin's 

 nest at Kames Villa, where my neighbour told me they brought 

 up a thriving family. I marked the incubation and daily feed- 

 ing of the young swifts last year until they took wing : I then 

 carefully watched them each day till they left us for the arid 

 plains of Africa. My last entries were Monday the 1st of 

 August, Tuesday the 2d, and Wednesday the 3d, after which 

 date I saw none in Bute till my note of them next May. 



All birds feeding in the air live on winged insects, and all 

 feeders on winged insects must be migrants. No better type 

 of both visits this country than the bird last mentioned. It is 

 the fleetest and strongest- winged of all British birds. For ten 

 long hours of a July day, without resting, will this indefati- 

 gable creature dart through the air at an immense height, col- 

 lecting the higher- fly ing insects with its flat-shaped beak, the 

 gape of which, as in all the swallows, is admirably adapted for 



her eminent father : A pair had built their nest in a corner of the Lord Presi- 

 dent's window. The fabric, however, always fell, until two older swallows built 

 it for them, and then left them in possession. 



