58 



Q 



to regard as simple what is the result of elaborate mechanism They fly so rapidly that you 



can scarcely suppose them to he searching for prey ; yet now and then a sudden turn indicates 

 the capture of a fly. When they separate, they cease from their noise, and for a while speed 

 along in curves, rapidly moving their wings ; but now three or four sweep past in succession as 

 if one had in view to overtake or outstrip another, and their shrill cries form a continuous 

 scream. Another band dashes into the line, and they mingle together for a moment, then 

 separate, and fly off solitarily. Their cries, shrill and somewhat harsh as they are, seem cries of 

 joy; for they are loudest and most frequent when they fly close together; and certainly they are 

 not indicative of animosity, for Swifts on such occasions never fight or attempt to injure each 

 other." 



The Swift has eggs usually in the month of June, their nests being placed in a convenient 

 cranny in a cliff, or in an old ruined building, or a church-tower. The nest is formed of straws, 

 feathers, cotton, or any thing it can pick up in the air driven about by the wind; and these 

 materials are glued together with a viscid secretion which forms abundantly in the gape of the 

 bird. Macgillivray describes a nest as " very rudely constructed, flattened, about six inches in 

 diameter, and half an inch thick ; composed of panicles of Avia ccespitosa, straws of oats, wheat, 

 and grasses, intermixed with fibrous roots, moss, wool, cotton, hair, and feathers of the domestic 

 Fowl, Partridge, and Eook. These materials are confusedly felted and agglutinated ; the gluing 

 matter being of a gelatinous, not of a resinous nature, and in extremely thin shreds, which 

 crackle, but do not readily burn when flame is applied to them. There is, however, a small 

 quantity of the membranous scales of the Scotch fir, together with some resinous matter, in one 

 of the nests." The eggs of the present species, two or three, and sometimes four in number, are 

 pure white, glossless, rather elongated in shape ; and specimens in my collection vary in size from 

 f4 by |f inch to 1 by f § inch. 



The specimens figured and described are an adult male from Cookham, on the Thames, and 

 a young bird from Stockholm, both being in my collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens: — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 



a. Hampstead, June 1st, 1870 {R. B. Sharpe). b, $. Cookham, June 8th, 1866 {W. Briggs), c, <$,d, 6. 

 Cookham, May 1869 (R. B. Sharpe). e,2,f,2- Cookham, June 12, 1869 {R. B. Sharpe). g, 6. 

 Cookham, June 12th, 1869 {Burrows), h, $ . Piedmont, May 1870. »,<?,*,$. Piedmont, April 20th, 

 1870 {Salvadori) . I, m. France {Verreaux). n, ?. Stockholm, August 27th, 1864. o, 6. Copenhagen, 

 September 15th, 1870 {Benzon). p, 6. Casa Vieja, Andalucia, May 3rd, 1874 {H. C. Irby). g. Soiith 

 Africa {Surtees). 



E Mus. Salvin and Godman. 



a. Hampstead, 1854 (O. Salvin). b. Derbyshire, July 1854 (0. Salvin). c, 6 , d. Sarpshorg, Norway, July 

 1866 {F. Godman) . 



E Mus. E. Hargitt. 

 a, b. England {Harding), c, $. Havre, May 20th, 1873 {Pluche). d, <s . Havre, May 29th, 1873 {Phiche). 

 e, 2 ■ Havre, June 1st, 1873 {Pluche). f, <S . Valencia, March 20th, 1873 {Howard Saunders). 



2t2 



