110 NEST AND EGGS OF THE SWIFT. 



at such an altitude that their forms are hardly perceptible to the unassisted eye. Whether the 

 Swift uttered this cry as a call or serenade to liis mate, was once a mooted point, but is now 

 clearly settled. The bird certainly uses Its cry when it is far away from its mate, but it also 

 employs its voice in giving encouragement to its mate as she sits upon her eggs in the dark 

 recesses of her home. Darting closely by the oriiice of the hole, the Swift gives forth a loud 

 and piercing scream, as a signal of his presence, and is answered by a soft chattering twitter 

 from the female bird, in aclcnowledgment of his courtesy. While thus employed, the agility 

 with which it sweeps along by the loved spot is truly mai-vellous, and the manner in which it 

 shoots round any projecting angle is almost incredible to one wlio has not observed this bird 

 while performing this feat. 



The nest is a very firmly made but yet rude and inartificial structure. The materials of 

 which it is made are generally straw, hay, and feathers, pieces of rag, or any soft and warm 

 substance which the bird may find in its rambles, and when woven into a kind of nest, are 

 firmly cemented together with a kind of glutinous substance secreted by certain glands. In 

 Norway and Sweden the Swift builds in hollow trees. The eggs are fi'om two to five in 

 number, not often, however, exceeding three, and in color they are pure white. The shell 

 is very fragile, and the inexperienced collector will oft<^n break the shell in attempting to 

 remove the contents. 



The young of the Swift are rather later in appearing than most young birds, seldom being 

 hatched until the end of June, and often delaying their advent until the beginning of July. 

 While in their juvenile plumage, they may be distinguished from the older birds by their 

 white chins and the yellowish ^vllite spots which appear on various parts of the body. Owing 

 in all probability to the lateness of the hatching time, there is only one brood in the year. 



To northern countries the Swift pays but a very short visit, as the bird evidently requu'es 

 a very high temj^erature, and is forced to depart as soon as the weather becomes chilly. Africa 

 seems to be the true home of this species, and in various parts of that continent the Swifts may 

 be found throughout three-fourths of the year, forming a curious link between countries so 

 far removed from each other. Generally the Swifts leave the north by the end of August, but 

 there are often instances where a solitary bird has delaj^ed its voyage for some good reason. 

 Sometimes the migrating instinct has conquered the parental feelings, and the old birds have 

 taken flight in company with their neighbors, leaving their unfortunate young to perish miser- 

 ably in their nests. 



It appears that the cause of a brood being delayed until so late in season, may be found 

 in the fact, that an accident had occurred to the former brood, and that the reproductive 

 instinct of the birds forced them to fulfil their destiny, and to rear a pair of living young, in 

 spite of the bitterness of the season. Such, at all events, was the case with the birds whose 

 strange behavior was so well recorded by Gilbert White. Even in this instance the male bird 

 yielded to tlie migrating impulse, and flew away with or after his companions, leaving his mate 

 to the hard task of bringing up her young without his aid : — 



" Our Swifts in general withdrew this year about the first day of August, all save one pair, 

 which in two or three days was reduced to a single bird. The perseverance of this individual 

 made me suspect that the strongest of motives, that of an attachment to her young, could alone 

 occasion so late a stay. I watched, therefore, until the twenty-fourth of Augiist, and then dis- 

 covered that under the eaves of the church, she attended upon two young, which were fledged, 

 and now put out their white chins from a crevice. These remained till the twenty-seventh, 

 looking more alert every day, and seeming to long to be on the wing. 



"After this day they were missing at once, nor could I ever observe them with their dam, 

 coursing round the church in the act of learning to fly, as the first broods generally do. On 

 the thirty-first I caused the eaves to be searched, but we found only two callow dead Swifts, on 

 which a second nest had been formed." 



As a general fact. Swifts and Swallows hold little communicm with each other, though they 

 inhabit the same localities, and pursue the same description of prey. When, as is often the 

 case, they make their residence in the same street, it has been observed that the two species 

 occupied diflferent sides of the street, the Swifts taking the north, and the Swallows preferring 



