Little Swift
Apus affinis (Gray, JE, 1830)
Photo © Rob Stonehouse
STATUS
Africa, southwest Asia and India. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally during the period covered (BOU 1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). 1866 Cornwall Swanpool, shot, March.
(W. P. Cocks, Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society Report 1869: 78).
[BOURC (2002), Ibis 144: 181-184].
History W. P. Cocks (1869) in the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society Report, p. 78, says: 'Description of a Swift, shot by Mr. Gill, March 1866, at Swanpool, and examined (by W.P.C.) August 6th, the same year.
Entire length four inches, eight tenths; head moderate, eyes - beak from forehead to tip, two tenths; rictus to tip, seven tenths; upper mandible triangular, sides gradually compressed to the point, hooked at tip; nostrils cleft longitudinally near the ridge (of the beak), open with raised edges, feathered at base.
Plumage thick, a delicate whitish yellow streak about three tenths in length on the front edge of the orbits. Forehead pale ashy-brown, crown nape side of head; scapulars larger and lesser, coverts breast, belly flanks, wings and tail brownish-black, partially tinted with green; some of the feathers faintly tipped and edged with buff and white. The outer web of feathers of the bastard wing similarly marked. Upper tail covert white about five tenths in breadth; under tail covert greyish-brown; under surface of tail feathers smoky-grey, shafts brown; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries brownish-black, with dark-brown shafts; undersurface light smoky. From carpus to tip of longest quill feather five inches and two tenths; second quill feather the longest; first and third equal; fourth much shorter; the outer vane of first very narrow, black, and edged with a delicate line of white; tail composed of ten feathers five tenths long. The wings extended beyond the tail 2.1 in.; slightly forked, ash-grey below tarsus, stout with a few feathers in front four tenths long; toes three in front, divided to their origin, one behind, middle and inner equal two tenths; nails robust, deep, curved, sharp, pointed, each two tenths; outer rather more than one tenth; nail one tenth; back toe and nail two tenths attenuated.'
A record from Cornwall in 1866, which pre-dated the first accepted British record, has been considered but rejected as unproven (BOURC (2002) Ibis 144: 182).
0). 1952 Cumbria River Kent, Kendal, Westmoreland, 14th May.
(J. T. R. Sharrock, British Birds 61: 162).
[J. T. R. Sharrock, British Birds 61: 162].
History J. T. R. Sharrock (1968) in British Birds, Vol. LXI. p. 162, says: '...Although the record was never submitted for verification, it is worth mentioning that H. F. Allan (in litt. to British Birds), who was very familiar with the Little Swift in India, saw a swift with a white rump hawking for insects over the River Kent in Kendal, Westmorland, on 14th May 1952.'
