The DWARF SWIFT (_Cypselus parvus_) is a small species found in some
parts of Central Africa, where it usually frequents the forests or
woodland districts. Its length does not exceed five inches and a half,
and its breadth is eleven inches. The plumage is almost entirely dark
grey, lightest upon the throat; the wings are of a brownish hue. In its
general habits the Dwarf Swift resembles its congeners, but the structure
of its nest is so remarkable as to merit a minute description. Brehm
tells us that upon one occasion, whilst travelling in the vicinity of
the Blue River, he was attracted by cries uttered by one of these birds
as it flew backwards and forwards near a lofty palm whose branches
towered above the surrounding trees. On going nearer the spot, he
observed that the Swift kept disappearing, as it were, within one of
the large, fan-like leaves, against the glossy green of which several
white objects were distinctly visible. Thinking this circumstance
somewhat extraordinary, he climbed the tree, and found, to his no small
astonishment, that the said green leaf was the nest, and the white
objects, the eggs, of the noisy bird. We should, perhaps, be more
accurate if we said that the leaf formed the outer part of the nest, the
actual chamber for the young being composed of cotton wool and feathers,
fastened together with saliva, and in shape resembling a round spoon: the
interior did not exceed two inches and a half in diameter. Guided by a
most wonderful instinct, this little builder seems perfectly aware of the
danger to which its aërial abode is exposed from a strong wind, and takes
the very safe precaution of gumming with her tenacious spittle not only
the nest and eggs, but the nestlings also, firmly to the leaf. Another
peculiarity in the domestic arrangements of this species is that the two
white eggs that compose a brood are fastened end upwards, in the very
limited bed prepared for their reception.