streak over the eye; his bright yellow breast and underparts, with black bill and legs; and notice his long hindclaw, which in the water-wagtail is much shorter. The yellow wagtail is particularly fond of frequenting the meadows adjacent to water where cattle are grazing, knowing well that there flies do congregate; but he is also very partial to the larvae of water-insects, and constantly alights on the debris of the reeds and rushes and water-plants which accumulate at mill-heads and hatchways. Its note is like the words "chit up"-shrill and sharp. The GREY WAGTAIL (Motacilla sulphurea), which, according to Seebohm, "confines itself entirely to the water-side, may be distinguished from all other British wagtails by its uniting the characters of a grey back with a green rump and upper tail-coverts," and also by its black throat and chin, bound by a line of white. This bird has also a long hind-claw. CHAPTER IV. THE SWIFT. WHEN Yarrell wrote his "History of British Birds," some forty-seven years ago, both swifts and swallows were placed in the natural order Insessores Fissirostres, and in the family Hirundinides. Since then ornithologists have placed the swallow, martin, and sand-martin in the order Passeres; family, Hirundinida; and the swifts are removed to the order Picarida-i.e., with the nightjars and cuckoos; and with a family name to themselves-Cypselida. It is not necessary here to enter into a lengthened detail for this separation; but the editor of the fourth edition of Yarrell says:"The characters which distinguish the swifts from the swallows are, even on a slight examination, so well marked and decisive that it is curious their important bearing on classification was not sooner recognised. Though so like swallows in much of their external appearance and in many of their habits, swifts have scarcely any part of their structure which is not formed on a different plan." He goes on to say that, "except a somewhat remote connection with the Caprimulgida (nightjars), the only true allies of the Cypselida are the humming-birds (Trochilida)." These birds of the air appear never to rest, at one moment winging their rapid flight close to one, at another far, far away; now rising high up in the air above, now skimming the surface of the water searching for their prey, and snatching the duns and other Ephemerida almost out of the jaws of the lusty trout or lazy chub-always on the wing, from "earliest dawn till latest eve." The SWIFT (Cypselus Apus) is easily distinguishable from its companions, the swallows and martins, by its greater size, its dark colour, and its long and powerful wings. See how these birds gyrate through the air-at one time so far above us as to be scarcely visible. See them hunting for flies in mid-air, at the same time having fine fun amongst themselves, chasing each other and shrieking. The rapidity of their flight is amazing. You may have been watching them one moment, and in the next there is not one to be seen-all have disappeared; and then, before you have done wondering where they could have gone to, they are again all around, flying here, there, and everywhere. The swift is one of the latest birds to go to roost-long after the gloaming is passed his loud, shrieking whistle or scream is constantly heard whilst he is chasing his mate high up in the air; and then quite suddenly all is still. The swift does not make a long stay with us arriving about the end of April, it seeks more sunny climes than ours early in August. Stray ones are occasionally seen as late as October. Gilbert White asks the question, "Where do swifts go when they leave us?" "Amusive birds! say where your hid retreat When spring's soft season lifts her blooming head?” Most of our swifts come from and return to Africa, as is now well ascertained; but White, in his day, and others as well, Lelieved that many swifts, swallows, and martins hybernated in holes in the banks of rivers, under the water, or elsewhere. Gilbert White was the first naturalist to draw attention to the peculiarity of the foot of the swift, carrying all toes forwards. The least toe, which should be the back toe, consists of one bone only; the other three of two each. The so-called edible swallows' nests, so much sought after by the Chinese to make into soup, are the nests of one of the swift family, and not of the swallow. The swift builds under the eaves of houses, in church. towers, and old barns; lays from two to four eggs of a dull white. They are very fond of the old thatched houses in country villages, and a most engaging sight is to watch their movements aloft; but it is no less interesting to behold some half-dozen birds racing, as they do within a few feet of the ground, through the narrow lanes of a small country village, uttering their squeaky note, Smee-ee, smee-ee :— "With sooty wing The shrill swift down the street before him swept." "Screech" and In some countries it goes by the name "Deviling." There is an old notion that the swift cannot rise from the ground: "This is my charter for the boundless skies, Stoop not to earth on pain no more to rise." However, he is able to do this only with some difficulty on account of his long wings. Swifts live entirely on insects of every kind. When the various hatches of the Ephemerida take place these birds frequent the river-side and devour vast quantities of May-flies, both of those dancing in the air or rising from the water. The SWALLOW (Hirundo rustica, family, Hirundinida); CHIMNEY SWALLOW. Sir Humphry Davy says in his "Salmonia: "-"I delight in this living landscape. The swallow is one of my |