144 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
Order PICARIAE.
Family CYPSELIDAE.
Swift: Cypselus apus. Locally, " Shriek Owl," " Screek Owl,"
'Deviling" (E.A.F.), and "Tommy Devil."
A common summer visitor in all parts of the county, breeding
wherever there are suitable nesting holes in either ancient or modern
buildings. It usually arrives
about the end of April and leaves
during August, though indivi-
duals may sometimes be seen in
September, and occasionally
even in October. Mr. Sackett
notes the first in 1884 on May
10th, in 1887 on May 12th, and
in 1888 on May 6th. He also
observed a very late specimen
on September 12th, 1887. In
that year a pair were observed
near Harwich on September 16th, and another pair at Stony Pointy
near Walton-on-the-Naze, on the 19th (29. Oct. 1). I saw a pair at
Audley End on August 25th, 1880, and one at Maldon on Septem-
ber 4th, 1888. T. S. Tiller shot one at Great Chesterford on
October 27th, 1877 (29. Nov. 3), an extremely late date. Another
was seen at Colchester on September 23rd, 1878 (29. Oct. 5).
At Harwich it breeds commonly and seems to be increasing (Kerry). Around
Broomfield, where they are often called " Skreek Owls," they are decidedly com-
mon, and considerable flocks of them may often in the late summer be seen
wheeling and dashing about overhead, screeching loudly. Their abundance is
due, partly at least, to the fact that a number of different houses and cottages
built by the late Mr. Thomas Christy, about forty years ago, were all roofed in a
manner which left open eaves, affording them excellent nesting sites.
Mr. Thomas Catchpool records (23. 1499) that at the end of June, 1835, on a 
cold, wet day, he and some friends found numbers of Swifts, stupefied by the
cold, clinging to ledges of the cliffs at Walton-on-the-Naze. " In some places
[says Mr. Catchpool] they were settled one upon another, four or five deep, and
we literally took them up in handfuls, five or six together. So numerous were
they, we could probably have caught some hundreds." Edward Jesse relates a
very similar occurrence. He says (Scenes and Tales of Country Life, p. 169) that