68 
NATURE NOTES. 
ground or short turf easily enough. I generally liberate the ones 
that I have been measuring, by placing them on the lawn, and 
with a flip they are off. But a swift never voluntarily settles on 
the ground, or anywhere else except at its own nest. 
Though I have never seen a collision, I have several times 
found swifts on the ground, bruised and disabled. In some 
cases they have recovered sufficiently to be able to fly away 
when thrown up, but in others the only thing to be done was to 
put the poor things out of misery. 
Their powers of flight are truly wonderful. I have often 
seen several at high speed stop dead but a few inches from the 
wall of the Tower, their bodies at an angle of about forty-five, 
their tails spread out and depressed, and their wings beating 
violently. And when one is chasing another their pace is mar- 
vellous. In a wind they will float about with motionless wings, 
like a seagull. They will come and whizz past my head as I 
watch them in the churchyard in the evening. Once I actually 
touched one with my hand as it flew by. But I can never catch 
any of the chorus in the landing-net ; they are so quick to avoid 
it, though well within reach. 
They have a habit of flying up against the wall, and clinging 
— sometimes for an instant, sometimes for longer — under the 
eaves. This they will do again and again, coming to the same 
spot each time. They do not tumble backwards when they 
loose their hold, but sideways, until the head points to the 
ground, and then the wings, which are open as the bird is 
falling, come into use. 
When up in the belfry I have seen the males coming in to 
rest in the daytime, and I have also seen a pair of swifts sitting 
side by side on a big beam which forms the wall-plate. They 
looked very pretty and loving with their heads together. After 
a time the one trundled off to the nest, a mortice-hole in the 
upper side of the beam, and then the other trundled in after it. 
With the exception of helping a little in the building of the 
nest, I believe that the male leaves all the care of the family to 
the female. In the nest the young ones, when they have got 
their feathers, will spar with their wings, and even peck with 
their beaks at an intruding hand. 
As they fly over still water, the swifts will touch the surface. 
This is, I believe, for the purpose of drinking, as the other mem- 
bers of the swallow tribe drink on the wing. But I have never 
been near enough to be quite sure that it is the beak which is 
dipped in the water. It is certainly not for the purpose of 
washing, like the swallows and martins, which strike the water 
with their breasts and dash it over their bodies. The swifts 
slacken their speed until almost stationary, and then, holding 
their wings well up, just touch the surface and fly on. 
As a swift flies it may be observed sometimes trying to rid 
itself of a blood-sucking parasite. It will fall through the air 
for some distance seemingly doubled up, and at times it appears 
