SWIFT (AS. swift, fleet, rapid; connected with Eng. swoop, sweep, OHO. swcifan, Ger. se/Hoc/fen, to rove). A bird of the family Cypselidx, nearly related to the humming-birds. The swifts are widely distributed, and sonic are only found in tropical countries; others are birds of passage, and spend the summer in colder parts of the world. Many are popularly called swallows, as, for example, the chimney-swift of the United States, almost always called 'chimney swallow.' This confusion is due to a resemblance in the long, pointed the small, widely gaping bill, the weak feet, and to the habit of capturing their insect prey by untiring hunting in the air. About seventy-five species of swift are known, half of which are American, al though only four occur in the United States. Swifts are mostly dull-eolored birds, black, brown, gray, and white, and are seldom over seven inches in length or more than twice that across the wings. They are remarkable for the development of the salivary glands, the secretion of which is used in building the nest. The latter may be nearly pure saliva, as in the edible nests of the salangane (q.v.), or, as is more commonly the ease, may be composed of grass, twigs, or other vegetable matter, glued together and to the support by saliva. The nests are attached to cliffs, the interior of chimneys, or hollow trees, the spathes of palm blossoms, or the leaves of palms, etc. The eggs are pure white, unspotted. The only swift common in the United States is the well-known chimney-swift (q.v.). Along the Pacific Coast occurs also the great black swift (Cypsqloides Oyer), whose range includes the \Vest Indies and Mexico and extends north to British Columbia. It breeds on inaccessible
cliffs, and is still little known. Another large swift (Cypsc/us mclanolcucus), which has the chin, throat, and breast white, occurs in the Southwestern United States, north to Wyoming and Utah, and it also breeds on practically inac cessible cliffs. To the same genus as the last named species belong the best-known European forms. In this genus, which contains about twenty-five species, three-fourths belonging to the Old World, the tail is usually forked, the legs and toes are feathered, and all the toes are directed forward. The common and widespread European swift is Cypselus a-pus. Another nota ble species is the alpine swift of the mountainous parts of South Europe. To this same genus be long the palm swifts of the West Indies, of which a Jamaican species (Nicropzis plicrnicobia) is noteworthy on account of its nest, which when placed in a palmetto is glued to the surface of one of the great fronds and formed of silk-cotton in the shape of a bag or watch-pocket open at the side. Some of the most curious and inter esting swifts dwell in the Orient. One genus (Maeropteryx) contains the tree-swifts, whose plumage is peculiarly soft, the tails deeply forked and the head crested. They are shy and breed in rocky jungles, forming a little cup shaped nest of flakes of bark glued together with saliva and attached to the side of the branch of a tree. There is only one egg, which (as is the case with all the family) is pure white. Five species are found in the Indo-Chinese region and (astward to the Solomon Islands.