294 BRITISH BIRDS. 



heard before dawn. It is a very interesting sight to see a company of 

 Swifts busy in search of food, or merely toying with each other high up 

 in the blue sky, far above the lofty spires and towers, coursing hither and 

 thither with marvellous speed and grace. 



Few birds have more perfect command over their movements in the air 

 than the Swift. Its flight is performed by a series of rapid beats of its 

 long scythe-shaped wings alternated with smooth glidings, during which 

 the wings are held out almost at right angles with the body. The shape 

 of a Swift as it skims in the air resembles that of an anchor. Its wings 

 are nari'ower and more curved than those of the Swallow, and the neck is 

 shorter and the head apparently smaller. Sometimes the birds glide for 

 a long distance, then with a few powerful sweeps of their pinions they 

 mount higher in the air, or flutter for a few moments ere darting off at 

 full speed to the right or left ; they wheel round or fly rapidly along, 

 their wings often appearing to beat alternately as the birds themselves 

 dart from side to side. Throughout the day the Swift continues on the 

 wing. In calm fine weather, as well as when it is rough and stormy, it 

 busily searches for prey, sometimes at a great altitude, at others near the 

 ground ; and the fact that it often hawks for flies in rough stormy weather 

 has caused it to be called the Devil Swallow in some localities. The Swift 

 is very rarely indeed seen to perch, and then usually on the face of a 

 perpendicular cliff or wall or on the rough bark of a hollow oak-trunk. 

 It may often be seen passing in and out of the steeples, towers, and rocks ; 

 but this is usually for the purpose of feeding its mate or young, and seldom 

 to rest. Its wings seem never to tire. The Swift is a bird which often 

 changes its feeding-ground. On some days it may be seen in great 

 numbers in one locality ; on others in quite a different one. Occasionally 

 it frequents the pastures or skims over the growing crops, gliding along 

 the hedgerows or flying just above the mown grass j and at these times 

 the bird is most easily approached, otherwise it is somewhat shy. 



The Swift is generally a comparatively silent bird, but when a large 

 number are flying about together it is often very noisy. Its usual note is 

 a very shrill and somewhat prolonged scream. This note appears to be 

 uttered most frequently when the birds are chasing each other through 

 the air in early summer, and when flying in and out of their nests. It 

 makes an attempt at song more feeble than that of the Swallow or the 

 Martin, but this twitter is seldom heard except when the bird is on its 

 nest. 



The Swift is never seen to attempt any progress on the ground; it 

 cannot walk, and has been said to be unable to rise from a flat surface • 

 but this is a popular error. Hancock, in his ' Birds of Northumberland and 

 Durham,^ relates that he placed a bird on the floor of a room, when it 

 rolled from side to side and appeared quite helpless, but when placed on 



