Abstract   The Swift is not suited to live in a captivity at all. The author reflects why birds sometimes are so exhausted that they cannot rise. He received many birds from people who found them on the ground as well as from boxes of venetian blinds. The examination showed that they often were very lean but they did not look ill in any way, the eyes always looked clear, but they were infected with external parasites like Mallophaga, Diptera, Sarcoptidae and Stenopterxy hirundinis which caused the bad state. After the birds had been cleaned from parasites, they were set free. The Swifts never fly directly up in the air, but first run a bit forward, with the tail upright and using the wings as support. They bend the upper part of the body forward to gain the necessary push for the rising. On a table or on a hand, they crawled forward to the brink and jumped down and glided away. The nest is more than simple. It consists to the bigger part of saliva, then some blade of grass, small leaves, little feathers or wool. 2-3, seldom 4 eggs.  T.

 
 
 

RUDOLF HERMANN:

Zum Kapitel "Mauersegler"

(Printed 1916 in Die gefiederte Welt.)

© APUSLife 1998, No. 0643