10 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
be held together without some such device. The glutinous mass is very apparent 
in the nests exhibited in the Museum at Bern, which are hardly pleasing in 
appearance, being not unlike a series of ancient and gruesome cheesecakes well 
flattened. The eggs are pure white, and of an elongated oval shape.” 
The food of the Alpine Swift consists of small insects caught upon the wing ; 
the harder and indigestible portions are subsequently cast up in the form. of 
pellets. For avicultural purposes this bird is useless. 
Family—C YPSELIDA. 
THE NEEDLE-TAILED SWIFT. 
Acanthyllis caudacuta, WATH. 
NLY two examples of this species have been obtained in Great Britain, the 
first near Colchester, in July, 1846, and the second in Hampshire towards 
the end of July, 1879 (a third being seen at the same time). This Asiatic species 
can only be regarded as an accidental straggler to our shores. When there is an 
interval of thirty-three years between the first and second appearance of a species 
one may vaguely comprehend the likelihood of its ever being seen by the readers 
of the present work. 
