308 Hirundinidcc. 



occasionally form some conception when in an autumnal morning 

 we see the ground carpeted with the thinnest webs glistening with 

 moisture : these are the webs of the gossamer spider, which, 

 rendered heavier by the dew settling on their slender threads, 

 fall to the ground and cover whole acres. Sometimes, says 

 Professor Newton, half a dozen birds will race, within a few feet of 

 the ground, through the narrow lanes, or up and down the 

 confined courts of a small country town or village, uttering the 

 while their singular squeaking note, which writers have tried to 

 syllable swee ree. Thence it is sometimes called 'Screech Owl/ 

 and ' Deviling.' But notwithstanding the vast powers of flight of 

 the Swift, prolonged through the entire day, surpassing that of 

 all our other birds, and with which the speed of the express train 

 is not to be compared for a moment, it is one of the latest of our 

 summer visitants to arrive, and one of the earliest to depart ; its 

 movements being doubtless regulated by the supply of the high- 

 flying insect food which it finds in the upper regions of the air. 

 It seems to delight most in heavy, close, thundery weather, when 

 it darts to and fro, screeching forth its unearthly note, and is 

 thought an uncanny bird by many a housewife even in this 

 county and in these days. Here it loves to frequent our downs in 

 fine weather, where it may be met with in considerable numbers ; 

 and in the evenings, uttering its loud and harsh scream, it wheels 

 round and round the tops of old towers and steeples, before 

 retiring to roost in their crevices and holes. Where suitable 

 nesting-places in church- towers or elsewhere are wanting, the 

 Swifts content themselves with holes in the thatch of cottages, 

 and both at Yatesbury and at Potterne I have seen them in full 

 possession of such humble nurseries. But where holes in a 

 tower may be had, they are occupied by choice. Nowhere have 

 I seen the Common Swift in such abundance as in the city of 

 Turin, for in the very heart of the town, not far from the Royal 

 Palace, and immediately opposite the Hotel d'Europe of world- 

 wide renown, stands a tall isolated tower, the walls of which, 

 unoccupied by windows, contain literally many hundreds of holes, 

 apparently left by the masons for scaffold purposes. All of these 



