ALPINE SWIFT. 299 



almost at an acute angle^ or hovering with rapid beat of wing with equal 

 ease. It ranges far and wide, appearing in one place and apparently 

 remaining until the food-supply is exhausted, then moving on to another. 

 Sometimes it hawks for food over the water, and often drinks on the wing. 

 It wanders far in the course of a day from its nightly retreat ; but a 

 hundred miles or so to this intrepid little bird are of little consequence. 



The cry of the Alpine Swift is shrill and tremulous, differing from that 

 of the Common Swift, but quite as loud. It utters its note, which is a 

 long-continued trill slightly varied, most frequently when chasing its 

 companions through the air, especially in the evening, a habit which is 

 quite as conspicuous in this bird as in the Common Swift. It is not known 

 to have a song or musical twitter like the Swallows, unless the chattering 

 which precedes its departure on migration may be thus regarded. 



In suitable localities the Alpine Swift is by no means a rare bird. There 

 are very few passes in the Alps where it may not be seen in summer ; and 

 it seems as much at home wheeling amongst the miuarets of Stamboul as 

 circling round the Gothic spires of Geneva or Berne. 



Dixon describes its habits in Algeria as follows : — " We saw this fine 

 Swift at Constantine and El Kantara. The breeding-place at Constantino 

 is partly situated in the stupendous cliffs above the city, and is shared with 

 Storks and Falcons, and partly in the crevices of the magnificent natural 

 arch of rock above the river Roumnel. The birds live in small colonies, 

 and many nests are near to each other. We met with a great number of 

 birds fiying up and down above the river-bed in a ravine below the city, 

 incessantly passing to and fro, and mingling with Common Swifts, Martins, 

 and Swallows. The flight of the Alpine Swift is much more rapid and 

 powerful than that of the other Swifts ; it darts with incredible speed, 

 turns and twists, hovers, mounts aloft, and dips down with a rapidity that 

 renders attempts to shoot it almost useless. Like the Common Swift the 

 altitude of its flight varies exceedingly. Some days it will rise to a great 

 elevation almost out of sight, on others it will be seen close to the ground, 

 rarely going more than sixty or a hundred yards high. The noble pass of 

 El Kantara is another home of the Alpine Swift, and its shrill exhultant 

 notes may be heard far up above amongst the almost inaccessible cliffs, 

 distinctly audible above the roar of the river below.'^ 



The food of the Alpine Swift is composed exclusively of insects, which 

 it catches on the wing. AH the hard parts of its food, such as the wing- 

 cases of beetles, are cast up again in the form of pellets, as is the case 

 with many insectivorous birds. 



The Alpine Swift generally breeds in the crevices of rocks, though it 

 will sometimes make its nest in a church or cathedral tower or in a con- 

 venient cranny of some other building. Canon Tristram says that in 

 Algeria it breeds in the towers of the mosques as well as in the rocks. 



