the duties of reproduction and the capture of insects for the sustenance of itself and its progeny. Immea- 
surably great indeed must be the amount of insect life destroyed by this bird ; and as it feeds exclusively on 
]>erfect insects, it becomes a greater check to their undue preponderance than if they formed even a part of 
its diet 111 then larva state. I transcribe a note, as illustrative of this part of the bird’s economy, made 
during my annual summer visit to Maidenhead and Its neighbourhood : — “June 28. Took two very young 
Swifts, apparently hatched about four or fiv^e days previously ; they were round, black, heavy-bodied nest- 
lings, without feathers ; their eyelids were much contracted, and their eyes but half open ; no dilatation of 
the gape, as in the Swallows and Tits {HimndinidcB , Paruloe) and many other young birds ; weight, three- 
quarters of an ounce. July 8. Took from a neighbouring nest two young Swifts, considerably advanced in 
size and plumage ; the entire body and tarsi were covered with dark-grey down ; stub-feathers were appear- 
ing on the crown of the head, and the wing- and tail-feathers were much developed. July 12. Took two 
other neighbouring Swifts. The size and plumage of these were greatly advanced over those last men- 
tioned ; the whole of the head and body was covered with perfect feathers, resembling in colour those of 
the adult ; the wings w^ere considerably developed, and the birds would have flown in four or five days ; 
weight twm ounces. Now if all these were hatched about the same time, as they probably w'ere, what 
a vast amount of insect life must have been taken by each young Swift between the 28th of June and 
the 12th of July! In this fortnight alone the young birds had increased in w^eight from three-quarters 
of an ounce to two ounces; and, bearing in mind that the adults as well as the young have to be 
sustained, w^e may form something like an estimate of the amount of insects destroyed by these birds 
during the summer months. From the earliest dawm to sundowai, and even later, the Swift is constantly 
hawking in the air, through which its various journeys must, at the most moderate computation, amount 
to many hundreds of miles a day. It probably reposes for short intervals dining the heat of the midday 
sun; hut the time thus lost is made up by later evolutions in the evening, when the males scream and chase 
each other from place to place, at one moment over w^ater or a lofty church spire, at the next over the tops 
of houses, darting, circling, and joyously pursuing and rivalling each other in the number and rapidity of 
their evolutions. When feeding their young, the parent birds dash into their dark recesses with the 
quickness of thought, going in and returning a hundred, nay, many hundred times a day. The structure of 
its tarsi and feet quite unfits the Swift for moving on the ground, whence its specific name of apns (footless), 
and, if once on a level surface, I question if it has the powder of again rising in the air ; but any slight 
inequality in the soil would enable the bird to effect its purpose. When roosting, or resting from the 
midday heat, the Swift retires to some lofty steeple or a more humble cottage roof, to the walls of 
which it clings with Its curiously formed toes and hooked nails. From such places of rest, and on leaving 
the nest, it drops into the air, and, with a few strokes of its powerful wings, sw'eeps away with the utmost 
ease and grace. 
That an individual pair annually return for many years to the same site is certain, marked birds having 
proved this fact over and over again. And wonderful. Indeed, is the instinct which directs this bird to 
return repeatedly to the same breeding-place. Going to and fro is the province of the Swift : in winter it 
flies over African soil ; in summer it dwells in the more invigorating climate of England and the continent of 
Europe, which latter countries may be considered its native home, for it is there that it procreates its kind. 
The sites chosen for the purpose of nidification are much varied, eathedi'al spires, lofty tow'ers, crevices 
in rocks, and the holes in lofty trees being alike resorted to ; the eaves of church-roofs and the houses 
of the humble villagers are also much frequented by it ; and the poorer the cottage, the more it appears to 
he preferred. The space betw^een the rafters and the roof, to which admittance is gained by a broken 
tile or any interstice through which the bird can squeeze its lengthened body, is a situation for w^hich it 
eGnces a decided preference. M^ithin such openings as these in the roof of the humble tenement, the 
Sw'ift either constructs its owm shallow, saucer-like nest of the straw's, feathers, and other materials caught 
w'hile floating in the air on a windy day, or appropriates those collected by the common Sparrow ; whichever 
course is pursued, these light materials are agglutinated together with a viscous substance secreted by the 
salivary glands of the bird. I have even found fresh petals of the yellow buttercup {Ranunculus bulbosus') 
glued on the inner side of the w'alls, wiiich the Swift must have taken wiiile skimming over the mead. 
Tills thin crust of a nest is often placed near the entrance, but sometimes on a rafter under the ceiling, at 
the distance of a yard from the inlet. Tlie eggs are of an oblong form, about an inch in length, and of a 
pinkish white ; tw'o is the normal number, but I have heard of three, and even four, being occasionally found 
in one nest. 
The males and females are so closely alike in size and colour that, to be quite certain of the sex of any 
individual that may be shot, dissection must be resorted to. The young soon assume a plumage very like 
that of the adult, the only difference being that they have more w'hite about the face, and that some of the 
darker feathers of the body are very narrowly fringed wdth grey. 
Tlie entire plumage, wdth the exception of a patch of dull w'hite on the chin, is very dark brown, glossed 
with purple and green ; irides dark brown ; bill black ; toes and claw s blackish brown. 
