ALPINE SWIFT. 
269 
INSESSORES. HIRUNDINIDJE. 
FISSIROSTRES. 
ALPINE SWIFT. 
Cypselus alpinus. 
PLATE LXV. FIG. VI. 
No wonder that the Alpine Swift should sometimes 
visit our shores, since it is common throughout a great 
part of the southern continent of Europe, and gifted 
with a speed of wing which would set distance at de¬ 
fiance. Its flight is said to be even swifter than that 
of our well-known species. It is met with in some 
parts of France, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland. It 
breeds, like our own species, in high rocks, ruins, and 
in church steeples. 
This Swift makes a nest, similar to the commoner 
species, of pieces of straw firmly cemented together by 
some glutinous matter, and lined with feathers, in which 
it lays from three to five eggs. 
When seated on the promenade under the beautiful 
cathedral at Berne, enjoying the glorious view which it 
commands of the distant Alps, I have had the additional 
pleasure of watching these birds careering round the 
beautiful old steeple in which they breed; I have also 
seen them in numbers, passing in and out from the per¬ 
pendicular rocks which form one side of the deep defile 
through which the road leads you on your way from the 
baths of Loeche to the Canton Yallais. 
