the duties of reproduction and the capture of insects for the sustenance of itself and its progeny. Immeasurably
great indeed must be the amount of insect life destroyed by this b ird ; and as it feeds exclusively on
perfect insects, it becomes a greater check to their undue preponderance than if they formed even a part of
its diet in their larva state. I transcribe a note, as illustrative o f this part o f the bird’s economy, made
during my annual summer visit to Maidenhead and its neighbourhood:— “ Ju n e 28. Took two very young
Swifts, apparently hatched about four o r five days previously; they were round, black, heavy-bodied nestlings,
without fea thers; their eyelids were much contracted, and their eyes but half open; no dilatation o f
the gape, as in the Swallows and Tits (Hirundinidai, Pandas) and many other young b ird s ; weight, three-
quarters o f 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 appearing
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
mentioned; the whole o f the head and body was covered with perfect feathers, resembling in colour
those of the ad u lt; the wings were considerably developed, and the birds would have flown in four or
five days; weight two ounces.” Now if all these were hatched about the same time, as they probably
were, what a vast amount o f insect life must have been taken by each young Swift between the 28th
o f June and the 12th o f Ju ly ! In this fortnight alone the young birds had increased in weight 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, we may form something like an estimate of the amount o f insects destroyed by
these birds during the summer months. From the earliest dawn to sundown, 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 during the heat
of the midday su n ; but 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, a t one moment over water or a lofty church spire, a t the
next over the tops o f 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 o f 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
apus (footless), and, if once on a level surface, I question if it has the power o f again rising in the a ir ; 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 o f rest, and on leaving
the nest, it drops into the air, and, with a few strokes of its powerful wings, sweeps 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 o f the Swift: in winter it
flies over African soil; in summer it dwells in the more invigorating climate o f 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 o f nidification are much varied, cathedral spires, lofty towers, crevices
in rocks, and the holes in lofty trees being alike resorted t o ; the eaves o f church-roofs and the houses
o f the humble villagers are also much frequented hy i t; and the poorer the cottage, the more it appears
to be preferred. The space between 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 which it evinces a decided preference. Within such openings as these in the roof o f the humble tenement,
the Swift either constructs its own shallow, saucer-like nest o f the straws, feathers, and other materials
caught while 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 o f the bird. I have even found fresh petals o f the yellow buttercup
( Ranunculus bulbosus) glued on the inner side of the walls, which the Swift must have taken while skimming
over the mead. This 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. The eggs are o f an oblong form, about an inch
in length, and of a pinkish white; two 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 o f the sex o f 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 white about the face, and that some o f the
darker feathers of the body are very narrowly fringed with grey.
The entire plumage, with the exception of a patch of dull white on the chin, is very dark brown, glossed
with purple and g re e n ; irklcs dark brown ; bill black; toes and claws blackish brown.