WHITE-BELLIED SWIFT. 
97 
WHITE-BELLIED SWIFT. Cypsehts melha (Linnteus). 
“ Alpine Swift.” 
A rare summer migrant. — Has been quoted, in nearly every work since 1839, 
as having occurred in Leicestershire, on what appears to me insufficient evidence. 
Harley was responsible for its insertion in the Leicestershire fauna ; his exact 
words being : — “ The author, in his remarks on the fauna of the County of 
Leicester has this note affixed to a fly leaf attached to Jenyn’s manual of British 
vertebrated animals . — ‘ 1839. September 23rd. Evening Serene. Wind South- 
west. Time half-past five. Observed a White-bellied Swift cross my path, 
overhead, near to the Foss lane toll gate. The bird was gliding gently through 
the soft air in a southernly direction, and at a height of 20 yards from the ground, 
thus enabling me to identify it very correctly.’ ” 
MacGillivray in his ‘History of British Birds,’ Vffil. III. (published in 1840), 
says, at p. 613 : — “ Mr. Harley, of Leicester, informs me that between five and 
six o’clock of the evening of the 23rd Sept., 1839, he saw an individual of this 
species, which he says he could not possibly have mistaken, ‘ the stretch of the 
wings having been much too great for the common Swift, probably not less than 
eighteen or twenty inches. The throat, breast, and belly, down as low as the 
vent, appeared white. The evening was serene, and the bird was gliding gently 
along at the height of fifteen or twenty yards. Its motion, in passing over- 
head, was just dike the shoot of the Windhover through the air.’ ” 
Again, at p. 661 of the same volume, in ‘Catalogue of the Land Birds of 
Leicestershire, by Mr. James Harley’: — “101. Alpine Swift, Cypsehis alpinus. 
On the 23rd Sept., 1839, at half-past five in the evening, I saw, to my astonish- 
ment, a bird of this species, gliding along in a southerly direction, at the height 
of fifteen or twenty yards. From the stretch of its wings and the white colour 
of its lower parts, it could not be mistaken.” 
Even jMr. Harting has — at pp. 200-1 of ‘ Our Summer Migrants,’ and at 
pp. 125-6 of his ‘ Handbook of British Birds’ — fallen into a slight error, leaving 
it to be inferred that this identical specimen was shot instead of seen. 
Looking at the three statements dispassionately, it will, I think, be 
admitted that the first note was doubtless written by Harley on the spur of 
the moment, at the time, and was not altered in his subsequent MS. contained in a 
morocco-covered volume bearing this inscription on the fly leaf : — “ A synopsis of 
the vertebrated animals of the County of Leicester, arranged according to the classi- 
fication of Jenyns, to which is added remarks on the periodical arrival of several 
summer birds of passage, with notes and observations thereupon. 1840 — 1855.” 
In his letter to MacGillivray (p. 613), Harley appears, however, to have polished 
up his first statement, clenching it, as it were, by mentioning the stretch of 
the wings, “eighteen or twenty inches,” adding also the particulars as to the 
whiteness of the under parts. Yet, in his “Synopsis,” he adheres to his first 
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