THE DEPARTURE OF THE SWIFTS. 175 



nervous organism itself must be attuned for a more 

 hurried flow of consciousness than is possible with our 

 sluggish human brain and muscles. The rapid move- 

 ments of wing and breast in the swift imply and neces- 

 sitate a rapid action of the heart, a rapid circulation of 

 the blood, a rapid inhalation and exhalation in the 

 lungs. In a given time the swift moves more, breathes 

 more, and therefore probably feels and lives more, than 

 any other known animal. Of course the quality of its 

 thinking need not be at all high, judged by a human 

 standard ; but the quality of its vitality, the extent to 

 which it lives its life, must apparently be very high 

 indeed. For a quick flow of warm blood through the 

 brain means on the subjective side a vast total wave of 

 consciousness, sensory or emotional ; and it also pro- 

 bably means a very rapid succession of ideas, however 

 simple, a relatively quicker perception of external 

 objects, and a relatively faster adjustment of muscular 

 movement to the movements of surrounding things. 

 Any one who watches the swifts wheeling and curvet- 

 ting over the water, or darting with unerring swoop at 

 flies which seem themselves to dart faster than a human 

 eye can follow, need hardly doubt that to their simple 

 little minds a second is an appreciable interval of time, 

 during which there is room enough to form an idea, to 

 make a muscular co-ordination, and to carry the desired 

 movement out in fact. 



Nor need we even suppose that the action of the 

 swift is like the action of a cricketer catching a ball off 

 the bat, where the muscular adjustments are made with 

 an unconscious celerity and accuracy which sometimes 

 appear surprising even to the actor himself; for the 



