770 
THE SWIFT. 
never so much alive as in sultry thundery weather, when it expresses 
great alacrity, and calls forth all its powers. In hot mornings, several, 
getting together in little parties, dash round the steeples and churches, 
squeaking as they go, in a very clamorous manner. These, by nice 
observation, are supposed to be males serenading their sitting-hens ; 
and not without reason, for they seldom squeak till they come close 
to the walls or eaves, and since those withan utter at the same time a 
little inward note of complacency. When the hen has been sitting 
all day, she rushes forth just as it is dark, and stretches and relieves 
her weary limbs, snatches a scanty meal for a few minutes, and then 
returns to her duty of incubation. 
Swifts, when wantonly and cruelly shot while they have young, 
discover a little lump of insects in their mouths, wdiich they pouch, 
and hold under their tongue. In general, as already observed, fed 
in a much higher district than the other species, they also range to 
vast distances ; since locomotion is no labour to them, they being 
endowed with such wonderful powers of wing. At some certain 
times in the summer, however, they have been observed hawking very 
low, for hours together, over pools and streams ; and on inquiring 
into the object of their pursuit, that induced them to descend so much 
below their usual range, it has been found that they were taking 
ph ryganeee, epliemeree, and libellulee, cadeu-flies, may-flies, and 
dragon-flies, that were just emerged out of their aurelia state. It 
appeared then no longer a w'onder that they should be so willing to 
stoop for a prey that aflorded them such plentiful and succulent nou- 
rishment. Swifts sometimes pursue and strike at hawks that come in 
their w'ay, but not with that vehemence and fury which swallows 
express on the same occasion. They are out all day long, even though 
wet, feeding, and disregarding the rain : from whence tw'o things may 
be gathered ; first, that many insects abide high in the air, even in rain ; 
and next, that the feathers of tliese birds must be well preened, to resist 
so much wet. Windy weather, and especially with heavy show^ers, they 
dislike ; and on such days withdraw, and are scarcely ever seen. 
There is a circumstance respecting the colour of sw ifts, Mr. White 
remarks, which seems not to be unworthy our attention. When they 
arrive in the spring, they are all over of a glossy dark soot-colour, 
except their chins, which are white; but, by being all day long in the 
sun and air, they become quite weather-beaten and bleached before 
they depart, and yet they return glossy again in the spring. Now, if 
they pursue the sun in lower latitudes, as some suppose, in order to 
enjoy a perpetual summer, why do they not return bleached 'I Do 
they not rather retire to rest for a season, and at that juncture moult 
and change their feathers, since all other birds are known to moult 
soon after the season of breeding ? Swifts are very anomalous in many 
particulars, dissenting from all their congeners, not only in the num- 
ber of their young;, but in breeding once a summer; w'hereas all the 
other British hirundines breed invariably twice. It is past all doubt 
that swifts can breed but once, since they withdraw in a short time 
after the flight of their young, and some time before their congeners 
bring out their second broods. We may here remark, that as swifts 
breed once in a summer, and only two at a time, and the other hirun- 
