184 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



forward ; besides the least toe, which should be the back- 

 toe, consists of one bone alone, and the other three only 

 of two apiece. A construction most rare and peculiar, 

 but nicely adapted to the purposes In which their feet are 

 employed. This, and some peculiarities attending the 

 nostrils and under mandible, have induced a discerning 

 naturalist ♦ to suppose that this species might constitute 

 a genus per se. 



In London a party of swifts frequents the Tower, 

 playing and feeding over the river just below the bridge : 

 others haunt some of the churches of the Borough next 

 the fields ; but do not venture, like the house-martin, into 

 the close crowded part of the town. 



The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on 

 this swallow, caUing it ring swala, from the perpetual 

 rings or circles that it lakes round the scene of its 

 nidification. 



Swifts feed on coleopiera, or small beetles with hard 

 cases over their wings, as well as on the softer insects ; 

 but it does not appear how they can procure gravel to 

 grind their food, as swallows do, since they never settle 

 on the ground. Young ones, over -run with hippoboscx, 

 are somclimes found, under their nests, fallen to the 

 ground : the number of vermin rendering their abode 

 insupportable any longer. They frequent in this village 

 several abject cottages : yet a succession still haunts the 

 same unlikely roofs : a good proof this that the same 

 birds return to the same spots. As they must stoop very 

 low to get up under these humble eaves, cats lie in wait, 

 and sometimes catch them on the wing. 



On the fifth of July, 1775, I again untiled part of a 

 roof over the nest of a swift. The dam sat in the nest ; 

 but so strongly was she affected by natural aropyr] for her 



* JohTi .\nlony Scopoli, of Carniola, M.D. 



