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Order II. MACROCHIRES. 



Family CYPSELID^l. 



Genus CYPSELUS. 



Hirundo apud Brisson, Orn. ii. p. 512 (1760). 

 Micropus apud Wolf, Taschenb. deutsch. Vogelk. i. p. 280 (1810). 

 Cypselus, Illiger, Prodomus Syst. Mamm. et Av. p. 230 (1811). 

 Brachypus apud Meyer, Vog. Liv- u. Esthl. p. 143 (1815). 

 Apus apud Cuvier, Regne Anim. i. p. 373 (1817). 



By most of the earlier authors the Swifts and Swallows have either been united in the same 

 family or placed close together ; but recent investigation has proved that they are widely different, 

 and certainly belong to different divisions or orders. Keyserling and Blasius place Cypselus 

 between the Owls and Goatsuckers, Degland and Gerbe between the Swallows and Goatsuckers, 

 Macgillivray between the Owls and Swallows, G. R. Gray between the Caprimulgidse and the 

 Hirundinidae ; and Sundevall places the Caprimulginse and Cypselinse between the Coccyges and 

 the Volucres Syndactylse, in which latter he includes the Bee-eaters and Kingfishers ; but after 

 careful consideration I have deemed it advisable to arrange the Swifts and Goatsuckers between 

 the Crows and Woodpeckers. 



The Swifts inhabit the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian Regions, five species 

 being found in the Western Palsearctic Region. Having the feet adapted for clinging, they are 

 unable to walk ; but their wings are very powerful, so that their flight is extremely swift and 

 protracted. They cling to the sides of walls and rocks, having strong claws, and support them- 

 selves, to some extent, with their strong tails. They feed entirely on insects, which they capture 

 on the wing, and are migrants, leaving their northern haunts when the cold weather sets in and 

 insects become scarce. Their cry is a harsh, loud screech ; and they have no song. They make 

 a rude platform of a nest of straws, roots, feathers, wool, &c, agglutinated together, and deposit 

 two or three pure-white elongated eggs. 



In Cypselus apus (the type of the genus) the bill is extremely short, depressed, broad at the 

 base, narrowed towards the tip, which is obtuse ; gape-line from behind the angle of the eye, 

 arched ; nostrils oblong, with an elevated margin ; wings very long, narrow, pointed, the first 

 quill short, pointed, the second and third nearly equal, the latter longest; tail long, deeply 

 forked, the rectrices often much exceeded in length by the wings ; feet short, strong ; the tarsus 

 feathered in front, bare behind, inner toe smallest and directed forwards, the third longest ; claws 

 large, strong, curved, acute. 



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