THE WHITE-COLLARED SWIFT. 
107 
splendid bay of Navarino, great numbers appeared careering high overhead. When walking 
through the pretty town of the same name, later in the day, Alpine Swifts were observed 
flying very low over the streets and houses, though the weather was delightfully warm and 
fine. On my visiting the island of Sphacteria, the western boundary of the bay, on the 29th, 
these birds were very abundant. The attraction here was a range of noble precipitous cliffs 
rising directly above the sea, at the western side of the island. These Swifts inhabited the 
cliffs, which are similar to those tenanted by the common species in the north of Scotland. 
“ Although the day was as fine and as warm as our northern summers ever are, these 
birds, as I walked along the top of the cliffs, swept about low and in numbers, occasionally 
within a few yards of my head. This remark is made from the circumstance of the common 
Swift being generally high in the air in fine weather ; we do, however, occasionally observe it 
sweeping near the earth at such 
times. Though larger, they in 
general appearance and flight 
strongly resemble the common 
Swift : they are very noisy, al- 
most constantly uttering a loud 
twitter, beside which, they occa- 
sionally give a brief scream, no- 
wise resembling the long-drawn 
and shrill cry of the common 
species. Towards the end of 
May, I saw a few Alpine Swifts 
at Constantinople, wheeling 
about the heights of Pera, and 
near the high tower of Gralata, 
in which they probably build. 
In the month of June, I met 
with this species at the island 
of Paros, and about the Acrop- 
olis of Athens. 
“Throughout this town, the 
common Swift was more fre- 
quently seen than the Cypselus 
alpinus , and at one locality only 
did they both appear— this was 
at Constantinople, where the 
former species was abundant, 
and a few of the latter were 
observed. This seemed rather 
remarkable, as in no scene did I 
meet with the one species, in 
which the other would not have 
appeared equally at home. The only difference in their habits which struck me, was, that the 
Alpine Swift is apparently more partial to cliffs than buildings, the common Swift more partial 
to artificial structures than to rocks.” 
WHITE-BELLIED SWIFT— Cypselus melba, and SWIFT— Cypselus opus. 
The White- coll aued Swift ( Cypselus cayenensis ), to which bird a passing reference 
has already been made, is a native of the Brazils, and is easily to be distinguished by the 
peculiarity of coloring from which it derives its name. The general tint of the plumage is the 
deepest violet-blue, so deep, indeed, that except in certain lights it appears to be velvet-black. 
Round the neck runs a band or collar of the purest white, the two contrasting tints having a 
remarkably fine effect. 
The nest of this species is very singular in its form, being a short, truncated cone, the 
