172 



ACCOUNT OF AN ALPINE SWIFT, SHOT IN NORFOLK. 



BY THE REV. THOMAS FULCHER. 



This engraving was reduced from the exquisite drawing of the rev. author. 



On the 14th of October, 1831, a bird-stuffer, then living in the ad- 

 joining parish, showed me the skin of a species of swift which was shot 

 in this village in the previous month of September, and was warm and 

 bleeding when taken to him. I afterwards directed him to stuff it for 

 me ; and the specimen is now in my possession, but not in a very good 

 state. In measuring it, some allowance must be made for the shrivelled 

 state of the skin. The length, from the tip of the bill to the end of 

 the tail, is rather more than eight inches; breadth across the wings 

 twenty inches ; it is much more bulky than the common swift (Cypselus 

 murarius Temminck), and must have weighed, at least, as much 

 again. Bill nearly two-fifths of an inch long, measured from the base 

 of the upper mandible, curved and black ; the colour of the irides 

 unknown, but I believe it was dusky. The head, back of the neck, 

 back, wings, and tail grey brown, and the edges of the feathers of a 

 paler colour. Round the breast is a collar of grey brown. The throat, 

 lower part of the breast, and the body to the commencement of 

 the under tail- coverts white; the sides dusky, with a mixture of 

 dull white ; under surface of the wings and tail, and the under 

 tail-coverts dusky. The quill-feathers are darker than the back, 

 and remarkably strong and pointed ; the quills dusky^ white. The 

 back, wings, and tail have copper-coloured and green reflections when 

 viewed in particular lights. The tail is more than three inches long, 

 forked, and consists of exactly ten feathers. Legs short and strong, 

 flesh coloured, and feathered to the toes, which are all placed forward, 

 as in the common swift ; the claws strong and brownish black. 



When I first looked at the bird I was puzzled to know what it was ; 

 but it soon struck me that it might be the bird referred to by White 

 (Letters 40 and 61) under the name of Hirundo melba, or great 



