100 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
105. Cypselus melba. White-bellied Swift. 
A rare accidental visitor. 
The only Hampshire specimens are recorded in the 
following note, communicated by Dr. James Salter to the 
" Field" of May 15th, 1886 :— 
" On the twenty-eighth of April I saw two specimens 
of this rare visitant {Cypselus melba) flying over a pond 
about a mile east of Basingstoke. I first saw them from 
a distance, and was attracted by their enormous expanse 
of wing. The swallows flying near them looked mere 
pigmies. 
" Upon going to the edge of the pond, I was able to 
examine their plumage very clearly. They were quite 
fearless, and came near to where I was standing. There 
could be no doubt about the species. 
"Their flight was very gentle and peculiarly graceful. 
They were occupied in picking insects off the surface 
of the water, and this they accomplished by a series 
of short, slow, curving stoops of a few yards, made very 
deliberately." 
It will be noted that these birds were travelling in a 
pair, like the common swift, as observed by White. 
The record in Wise's " New Forest " is a mistake (see 
under " Common Swift "). 
It is a native of Southern and Central Europe, North 
Africa, and as far East as India. In winter it visits Cape 
Colony. 
