Pi cart an Birds. 
95 
The Picarian Birds .— Order Coraciiformes. 
These birds may be distinguished from the Passerine Birds by the different 
arrangement of the tendons of the foot. External characters are less easy to find 
for their separation, but, as a rule, they nest in holes, and lay white eggs, though 
the Goatsuckers are an exception, as these lay mottled eggs in the open on the 
ground and the young are covered with down, whereas the rest of the Picaritz have 
the young hatched naked. 
THE SWIFTS. 
Sub-Order CYPSELI. 
THE 
WHITE-BELLIED 
SWIFT. 
(Apus melbn.) 
Generally these birds have been classed along with the 
Swallows, which they resemble only in external appearance, 
having the same long wings and feeding on insects in the 
open air. This resemblance, however, is merely superficial, for the Swallows and 
Swifts belong really to different Orders of birds, the former having twelve tail- 
feathers, and the latter only ten, and the proportions of the wing-bones, the shape 
of the breast-bone, and the formation of the toes are also different in the two groups. 
This is a large bird, measuring eight-and-a-half inches in 
length, and distinguished by its white under-surface, varied 
only by a brown band across the 
chest and by the brown on the 
sides of the body. The home of the 
species is in Southern and Central Europe east to the 
Himalayas, and it winters in Northern Africa and in the 
Indian Peninsula. It has occurred about twenty times in 
Great Britain, but has not been noticed in Scotland as 
yet. The nest is a rough structure of earth and rubbish 
such as leaves, paper and feathers, gathered by the 
birds themselves on the wing, as their short 
feet and long wings prevent their rising from the 
ground, should they be so unfortunate as to be driven to 
the latter; this is sometimes the case when they first 
arrive and the weather happens to turn cold, so that the 
birds become numbed. They are, however, able to 
cling to rocks with the greatest ease by means of their 
grasping toes. The eggs are two in number, rarely 
more, and are pure white. 
The White-Bellied Swift. 
