106 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



1883. :Mr. Gatcombe saw one April 28th, 1871, near Plymoutli (Zool. 

 187<5, p. 41)92). 



Mr. Cornish is reported to have seen one in Devonshire on Xoveraher 

 27th, 1835 (' Yarrell's B. Birds,' 4th ed. ii. p. 365). On September 2ud, 

 1.876, at Torrington, a Swift was observed repeatedly flying in and out of a 

 hole beneath the eaves of a thatched house, where no doubt she had young. 

 The Swift usually leaves North Devon about August 14th (G. F. M., 

 Zool. Ib7(i, p. 5165). On the 4th October, 1876, about a score were 

 seen near lll'racombe (H. E. Bawsou, Zool. 1880, p. 108). Mr. E. A. S. 

 Elliot saw one September 27th, 1886, at Pinstow, near Kingsbridge. 

 Near Plymouth it has been seen as late as August 20th (1851 and 1883) 

 by Bev. B. A. Julian and Mr. Gatcombe (' Naturalist,' 1852, p. 7 ; Zool. 

 1883, p. 422) ; and on the same day in 1890 at Exmouth (W. D'U.). 



Swifts have become more numerous in the immediate vicinity of 

 Plymouth than either Swallows or Martins (J. G., Zool. 1876, p. 4992). 

 Oil Dartmoor they are said to breed in holes in the stone boundary-walls 

 (W. AV. B., V. v.). Swifts are certainly very numerous on the moor 

 in summer, and there are no other available nesting-places for them 

 except in some of the rocky tors. In Exeter, where they are very 

 abundant, they breed under the roofs of houses, squeezing themselves in 

 between the barge-boards and the walls, where one would think it impossible 

 for them to pass, but their flattened form enables them to do so with 

 ease. A gamekeeper informed us that, in the woods on the slopes of the 

 Haldons, Swifts nest in holes in trees. At Berry Head and Beer Head 

 they breed in the cliffs (J. G., Zool. 1872, p. 3168). We have observed 

 that the food of these birds principally consists of small Coleopterous 

 insects, the elytra of red-coloured species of Aphodius being conspicuous 

 in their droppings. 



The wild scream of the Swifts, as they rush through the air in sportive 

 chase of one another, is one of the accompaniments of summer life, and 

 there are hardly any localities which know them not. Thej' place their 

 nests in crevices of the cliffs overhanging the sea, in church towers, in 

 holes beneath the eaves of cottages, and in the cistern-heads of water- 

 shoots on mansions in fashionable squai'cs, so that town and country and 

 sea-shore are familiar with their presence, and on the moors they nest in 

 fissures in the granite tors. Swifts have been captured and marked, and 

 in this manner it has been ascertained that the same birds frequent the 

 same (juarters year after year. The largest of our (generally so-called) 

 English Swallows, with the exception of the "White-bellied Swift, an 

 occasional visitor only, the Swift is the last to arrive and the first to 

 leave us, spending only three clear months in this country, and is, appa- 

 rently, more sensitive to the cold than the other species, as, after a 

 " cold-snap " in May, Swifts are often to be picked up dead and dying 

 upon the ground. One May, after a week of very cold weather, there 

 was a sudden change to a genial westerly wind with warm showers, and 

 by a trout-stream we found Swifts and all the customary British hirun- 

 dines feeding ravenously upon the insects which infested the stream ; so 

 eager were they after their prey that they continually pounced upon our 



