134 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 constitute a genus per se. 



In London a party of swifts frequents 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-martin, 

 into the close crowded part of the town. 



The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on this swallow, 

 calling it " ring swala," 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, over-run with liippoboscce, are 

 sometimes found, under their nests, fallen to the ground ; the number 

 of vermin rendering 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 affected 

 by natural crrop-y^ 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, permitting 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 contem- 

 plated their naked bodies, their unwieldly disproportioned abdomina, 

 and their heads, too heavy for their necks to support, we could not but 

 wonder when we reflected that these shiftless beings in a little more 

 than a fortnight would be able to dash through the air almost with the 

 inconceivable swiftness of a meteor ; and perhaps in their emigration, 

 must traverse vast continents and oceans as distant as the equator. So 

 soon does Nature advance small birds to their rj^mia, or state of perfec- 

 tion ; while the progressive growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow 

 and tedious ! I am, &c. 



John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M.D. 



