SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF THE SWIFTS. 91 
either dead from exhaustion, or so incapacitated as to fall an easy 
prey to Wolves and Foxes. Nor are these the only enemies 
it has to contend with. We well remember stumbling one day 
upon a dead Roe which lay strangled in a snare that had been set 
in the woods by some wily poacher, who did not, however, reap the 
reward of his ingenuity. In parts of Germany and Austria, 
where Roe-deer are more numerous than in this country, they 
_ Offer a great temptation to poachers, since their comparatively 
small size renders it much easier to carry them away without the 
aid of a pony, which could not be dispensed with in the case of the 
larger Red-deer, unless, of course, the animal were cut up and 
transported piecemeal. 
The general appearance of the Roe must be sufficiently 
familiar to most people, even to those who have never seen 
the animal alive, through pictorial illustration. But as artists 
almost invariably depict the full-grown buck and doe, we have 
thought it of interest to give in the accompanying plate (Plate I.) 
a portrait of a young buck with horns “in the velvet,” reproduced 
from an instantaneous photograph. 


ON THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF THE SWIFTS 
(CYPSELID 2). 
By W. K. Parxmr, F.R.S. 
My friend the Editor has recently put into my hands a 
paper on this subject by the late Professor Garrod (‘ Zoologist,’ 
1877, pp. 217—220), and invited my criticism thereon. No one 
valued the work done by that talented young anatomist—so early 
lost to us—more than I did, notwithstanding that his charity 
did not abound towards me. The fact of the case was this,—he 
was always looking at the newest specializations of this or that 
type, in the modification of the vocal organs, and the circulatory 
and muscular systems; whilst I was always in search of old 
things, any “ unconsidered trifle” that might help me to imagine 
what sort of parents the first birds had. It seems to me, in 
endeavouring to form a true estimate of the qualities of Garrod’s 
mind, that he was eminently fitted for action, but was too restless 
and impatient for contemplation. Many things in the paper just 
