THE SWIFT. 
709 
observed them shrink when torn from the rocks, thus exhibiting 
symptoms of sensation. The same opinion prevailed in the time of 
Pliny. But no attention was paid to this subject, till Marsigli ex- 
amined them, and declared them vegetables. Dr. Peysonell, in a 
paper which he sent to the Royal Society in the year 1752, and in a 
second in 1757, affirmed they were not vegetables, but the production 
of animals, and described Ae process which they performed in mak- 
ing the sponges. Mr. Ellis, in the year 1702, was at great pains to 
discover these animals. For this purpose he dissected the spongia 
urens, and was surprised to find a great number of small worms of 
the genus nereis, or sea scolopendra, which had pierced their way 
through the first substance of the sponge, in quest of a safe retreat. 
That this was really the case, he was fully assured of, by inspecting 
a number of specimens of the same sort of sponge, just fresh from 
the sea. He put them into a glass filled with sea-water ; and then, 
instead of seeing any of the little animals which Dr. Peysonell 
described, he observed the papilla, or small holes with which the 
papilla are surrounded, contract and dilate themselves. He examined 
another variety of the same species of sponge, and plainly perceived 
the small tubes inspire and expire the water. Fie therefore concluded 
that the sponge is an animal, and that the ends or openings of the 
branched tubes are the mouths by which it receives its nourishment, 
and discharges its excrements. 
The Swift. 
The swift is a species of swallow, and is a summer inhabitant of 
t^iese kingdoms. It comes the latest, and departs the soonest, of 
any of the tribe, not always staying to the middle of August, and 
often not arriving before the beginning of May. A pair of these 
birds were found adhering by their claws, and in a torpid state, in 
Feb. 1766, under the roof of Longnor chapel, in Shropshire; on being 
brought to a fire, they revived, and moved about the room. “ The 
fabulous history of the Manucodiata, or bird of paradise,” says Mr. 
Pennant, *‘is, in the history of this species, in a great measure verified : 
that was believed to have no feet ; to live upon the celestial dew ; to 
float perpefually on the atmosphere ; and to perform all its functions 
in that element. The swift actually performs what has been in 
these enlightened times disproved of the former : except the small 
time it takes in sleeping, and what it devotes to incubation, every 
other action is done on the wiiig. The materials of its nest are 
collected either as they are carried about by the wind, or it pulls 
them up from the surface in its sweeping ffiolit ; its food is undenia- 
bly the insects that fill the air ; its drink is taken in sips from the 
water’s surface. 
The swift is a most alert bird, rising very early, and retiring to 
roost very late ; and is on the w^ing, in the midst of summer, at least 
sixteen hours. In the longest days it does not retire to rest till a 
quarter before nine at night, being the latest of all day-birds. Just 
before they retire, w hole groups of them assemble high in the air, and 
squeak, and shoot about with wonderful rapidity. But this bird is 
