COMMON SWIFT. 107 
Famiry CYPSELIDA. 
COMMON SWIFT. 
CypsEeLus apus, Linn. 
Pl. XVIL., figs. 12, 18. 
Geogr. distr.— Europe generally in the summer; Asia as far east as 
Dauria; Africa in the winter: it arrives late in Great Britain, and 
leaves early. 
Food.—Insects. 
Nest.—Formed roughly of straws, grasses, feathers, moss, wool, 
and cotton, felted and glued together with a viscid secretion from 
the mouth. 
Position of nest.—In crannies in cliffs, ruins, old church-towers, 
thatches, hollow branches of decayed trees, &c. 
Number of eggs.—2-4. 
Time of nidification.—V-VI. 
The Swift arrives in the Southern counties towards the 
end of April, and in the northern counties early in May; it 
usually leaves again at the end of August or early in 
September; though less common than the Martins and 
Swallow, I remember to have formerly seen it in some 
abundance in the village of Herne, in Kent, and specimens 
caught at Herne Bay were sometimes brought into the hotel. 
The nest is scanty and rather flat, carelessly built, but 
the materials covered with a viscid saliva which unites 
them firmly together. It is frequently placed under the 
roofing of a house in a similar position to that usually 
affected by the House Sparrow. The number of eggs 
laid is usually two, rarely as many as four, of a pure 
chalky-white colour. 
It was formerly supposed to be unable to rise from the 
ground, and it certainly prefers to fly from a higher level ; 
I have, however, seen a Swift rise from the high road at 
the approach of some village boys who made sure of cap- 
turing it, and apparently without any effort. Taken into a 
house and placed upon a carpet, the Swift tumbles about, 
owing, probably, to the fact that the woollen fibres get 
entangled in its claws as it attempts to rise. I remember 
one bird which, after tumbling about, fell down apparently 
dead, and when thrown out of the window dropped like a 
stone till within a foot or two of the ground, when in a 
moment its wings opened and it sailed swiftly away. 
