384 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



BREEDING HABITS OF THE SWIFT. 

 By THE Rev. Allan Ellison. 



I HAVE been much interested by the Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain's 

 article on this subject {ante, p. 286), and especially by the evi- 

 dence he brings forward upon the question as to the number of 

 eggs produced at a laying by these birds. How there ever has 

 been a controversy on this point is a puzzle to me, unless it be 

 that comparatively few observers have examined any gx-eat num- 

 ber of the nests of the Swift, owing to the difficulty of getting at 

 the places where they build. 



In days gone by I had unusual facilities for investigating the 

 breeding habits of the Swift, as a large colony nested in crevices 

 under the eaves of some tall buildings to which I had free 

 access. I examined some dozens of their nests, and found 

 three eggs to be quite a usual number — I should say, more 

 usual than two. The experience of Mr. R. J. Ussher (' Birds of 

 Ireland,' p. 103) agrees with this. The suggestion that when 

 three eggs are found, they are the produce of more than one 

 female, is, I think, untenable. Far more probably, in many 

 cases where but two are found, one of the eggs has been de- 

 stroyed, or dropped away from home. Mr. Jourdain has men- 

 tioned that broken eggs have frequently been found under the 

 nesting-places, showing that eggs sometimes roll out of the 

 nests. This is a thing very likely to occur, as the nest of the 

 Swift is generally a very slight affair — saucer-shaped or almost 

 fiat. I have once found the eggs resting on the bare stone, with 

 only a slight ring of nesting materials round them. In the case 

 of almost any bird's nest, it is not unusual for one or more of 

 the eggs belonging to the clutch to be missing. Thus I have 

 found the nest of a Long-eared Owl with but one egg, nearly 

 ready to hatch, though that bird lays five or six eggs. The 

 explanation was soon found, however, for in the same wood there 

 was the nest of a pair of Hooded Crows with the bird hatching. 



The well-known fact that Sparrows often quarrel with the 



