Alfred Newton

“ The swift commonly chooses its nesting-place in holes under the eaves of buildings, but a crevice in the face of a quarry, or even a hollow tree, will serve it with the accommodation it requires. This, indeed, is not much, since every natural function except sleep, oviposition and incubation, is performed on the wing, and the easy evolutions of this bird in the air, where it remains for hours together, are the admiration of all who witness them. ”

“ Swifts are divided into three sub-families: Macropteryginae, the true swifts, of tropical Asia, which form a nest gummed by saliva to branches of trees; Chaeturinae, building in rocks or houses, and with an almost world-wide range: it includes Chaetura palagica, the "chimney-swallow" of the United States, Collocalia fuciphaga wich obtained its specific name from the erroneous idea that its edible nests were formed by partly digested seaweed; Cypselinae, also world-wide and containing Cypselus apus, the common European swift. All the swifts are migratory. ”

“ The swifts that construct these "edible" nests form a genus Collocalia, with many species; but they inhabit chiefly the islands of the Indian Ocean from the north of Madagascar eastward, as well as many of the tropical islands of the Pacific so far as the Marquesas—one species occurring in the hill-country of India. They breed in caves, to which they resort in great numbers, and occupy them jointly and yet alternately with bats—the mammals being the lodgers by day and the birds by night. ”