Swifts are no songsters, and have only one harsh 

 screaming note ; yet there are ears to which it is 

 not displeasing, from an agreeable association of 

 ideas, since that note never occurs but in the most 

 lovely summer weather. 



They never settle on the ground but through 

 accident ; and when down can hardly rise, on ac- 

 count of the shortness of their legs and the length 

 of their wings : neither can they walk, but only 

 crawl ; but they have a strong grasp with their 

 feet, by which they cling to walls. Their bodies 

 being flat, they can enter a very narrow crevice ; 

 and when they cannot pass on their bellies they will 

 turn up edgewise. 



The particular formation of the foot discrimi- 

 nates the swift from all the British hirundines ; and 

 indeed from all other known birds, the Hiriindo 

 melba, or great white-bellied swift of Gibraltar, ex- 

 cepted ; for it is so disposed as to carry "omncs 

 quatuor digitos anticos " — ** all its four toes for- 

 ward ; " besides, the least toe, which should be the 

 back one, consists of one bone only, and the other 

 three of only 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 mandi- 

 ble, have induced a discerning naturalist to suppose 

 that this species might constitute a genus by itself. 



In London a party of swifts frequent the Tower, 

 20 39 



