67 
little cup of a nest. I used to take up a bag of white feathers 
and scatter them on the wind from the soundholes, and the birds 
were delighted. Sometimes there were no Swifts in sight at 
first, but soon they came in numbers and raced for the feathers. 
It was one of the sights we used to show to privileged visitors. 
The Church (Orleton, in Herefordshire) has a Norman tower and 
an Edward III. wooden broach spire, and at the top of the tower 
there were half-a-dozen nests into which I could see, with the 
aid in some cases of a mirror. The Swifts would come and 
rest at their nests for a while in the daytime, and then they 
would let me take them by hand, but as far as I can learn they 
settle nowhere else. A correspondent told me that when they 
were evicted from their homes in the Church at Cromer, when 
the nesting holes were filled up, they returned to the cliffs which 
they had used in prehistoric days. They generally build in holes 
and in the dark, but within the spire there was light enough for 
accurate observation, and I am one of the few people who have 
seen young blind Swifts being fed. This was done somewhat 
after the manner of pigeons. Only the hen bird feeds the young. 
Many an hour have I spent amongst the bells waiting for and 
watching the Swifts and taking notes of the days on which eggs 
were laid, hatched, etc. A mouse delayed me a whole year in 
one instance. I was watching one young bird to ascertain the 
time it took from leaving the shell to leaving the nest. It was 
growing well and beginning to get its feathers, when I found it 
dead with a small hole in its neck. It was some time before I 
could fix on the murderer, but, guided by the evidence, I laid 
a trap, and there, on the top of that Old Norman tower, forty 
feet from the ground, I caught two big mice, and put a stop to 
their career of crime. 
The old Clerk respectfully hinted that I was insane. I don’t 
think he meant his words to be understood in that sense, but he 
said that things were different now, but in his young days anvone 
who spent such a lot of time and trouble watching these birds 
would have been walked off to the lunatic asylum. 
i he eyes of the Swifts are large and of a beautiful dark 
brown. 1 hey are deep set in the head, for' they must not pro¬ 
ject to catch the wind, but must have a clear field straight for¬ 
ward. I he groove which is cut in front for this purpose is lined 
with black with no gloss about it, and there is a little tuft of 
upright feathers in front, the use of which) probably is to turn 
the wind off the eyeball. The beak is a mere point to divide 
the air and feed the young with. The head is carried close to 
the body, but there is a crook in the neck which can be 
straightened when the owner wants to reach out for a fly. The 
mouth has a very wide gape, the corners of it coming down 
underneath the eyes. The tail is forked, but has nothing super- 
. fluous or merely ornamental about it, like the long tail feathers 
of the Swallow. It is the best working tail that could be designed, 
