386 BRITISH BIKDS. 



breeds here. Unlike most owls, the " short-ear " will take its 

 prey in the daytime. Mice, rats, birds, and reptiles, also insects, 

 are taken by it, and it is said fish also. It may often be put up 

 in the autumn when shooting, and flies off with great rapidity, 

 The Long-eared owl is chiefly found in fir-plantations. There it 

 hunts for its prey during the night, and clears off much vermin; 

 Although fairly common all the year, it is much more so in 

 autumn, owing to migrations from the Continent. It breeds in 

 old birds' nests and squirrel-dreys. 



All the owls may be said to be decidedly useful birds, and the 

 practice, still largely in vogue, of shooting them down should be 

 prohibited by all landowners and farmers. 



(11) Macrochires. 



Swifts (Ctpselid^). 



The Swifts have all four toes directed forwards, and provided 

 with long and strong claws. The bill is short and wide, the 

 gape extending very far back, beyond the eyes. The nostrils, 

 are longitudinal, the borders being edged with small feathers. 

 The wings are very long and pointed, and the tail forked in the 

 genus Cypselus, Swifts were formerly classed with the Swal- 

 lows, but are now shown to be related more closely to the 

 Nightjars, stiU more closely to the Humming-Birds. 



Cypselus opus, the Common Swift, is an abundant summer 

 visitor, appearing annually about the end of April, and leaving 

 about the end of August. The colour is blackish-brown, more 

 or less shiny, with a pale-grey or white area under the throat 

 They make their scanty nests in holes in thatch, in church- 

 towers, crevices in clifi's and quarries, &c., in which they deposit 

 two white eggs in June. The Swifts are very useful birds, as 

 they devour numbers of insects, especially moths. 



