Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/793

 SWIFT 761 islands of the Pacific so far as the Marquesas, one species occur- ring in the lull-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. 1 The genus Cypselus, as noted by Willughby, with its American ally Panyptila, exhibits a form of pedal struc- ture not otherwise observed among birds. Not only is the hind-toe constantly directed forwards, but the other three toes depart from the rule which ordinarily governs the number of phalanges in the Bird's foot, a rule which applies to even so ancient a form as Arcfixopteryx (see BIRDS, vol. iii. p. 728), and in the two Cypseline genera just named the series of digital phalanges is 2, 3, 3, 3, instead of 2, 3, 4, 5, which generally obtains in the Class Aves. Other Swifts, however, do not depart from the normal arrangement, and the exception, remarkable as it is, must not be taken as of more value than is needed for the recognition of two sections or subgenera admitted by Mr Sclater in his monographical essay on the Family (Proc. Zool. Society, 1865, pp. 593-617). There seem to be about half a dozen good genera of Cypselidte, and from fifty to sixty species. Their geographical distribution is much the same as that of the Hirundinidx (cf. SWALLOW, ut supra) ; but it should be always and most clearly borne in mind that, though so like Swallows in many respects, the Swifts have scarcely any part of their structure which is not formed on a different plan ; and, instead of any near affinity existing between the two groups, it can scarcely be doubted by any unprejudiced investigator that the Cypselidse not only differ far more from the Hirundinidx than the latter do from any other Family of Passeres, but that they belong to what in the present state of ornitho- logy must be deemed a distinct Order of Birds that which in the present series of articles has been called Picarix. That the relations of the Cypselidx to the Trochilidse (cf. HuMMiNG-BiKD, vol. xii. pp. 357 sq.) are close, as has been asserted by L'Herminie and Nitzsch, Dr Burmeister and Prof. Huxley, is denied by Dr Shufeldt (Proc. Zool. Society, 1885, pp. 886-914), but the views of the last have since been controverted by Mr F. Lucas (Auk-, 1886, pp. 444-451): (A. N.) Swift's SWIFT, JONATHAN (1667-1745), dean of St Patrick's, earl y the greatest satirist of his own or perhaps of any age, was years> born in Hoey's Court, Dublin, November 30, 1667. Like Pope's, his family was of Yorkshire origin ; in the time of Charles I. the representative of one branch had obtained a peerage, which expired with him. The first of his own immediate ancestors known to us was a clergyman, rector of St Andrew's, Canterbury, from 1569 to 1592, whose son succeeded him in that living, and whose grandson was the Rev. Thomas Swift, vicar of Goodrich in Herefordshire, renowned for his eccentricity, his mechanical ingenuity, and, above all, his stubborn devotion to Charles I. and the persecutions he underwent in consequence. Plundered thirty-six times, and ultimately ejected from his living, he died in 1658, leaving his thirteen children a small and greatly impoverished landed estate and the questionable advantage of a substantial claim on the gratitude of the restored sovereign. More fortunate than most ruined cavaliers, his eldest son Godwin soon obtained the attorney- generalship of the palatinate of Tipperary. This piece of good fortune naturally attracted other members of the family across the channel, among them Jonathan, one of the youngest of nine brothers, but already husband of Abigail Ericke of Leicester, a lady of ancient descent and means more limited than his own. A student of law, but 1 Mr H. Pryer has given one of the latest accounts of some of these caves in North Borneo (Proc. Zool. Society, 1885, pp. 532-538), which may be read to advantage. never called to the bar, Jonathan appears to have subsisted for some years on windfalls and casual employments. At length (1665) he became steward of the King's Inns (an- swering to the Inns of Court in England), an office of small emolument. Two years afterwards he died suddenly, leaving an infant daughter and a widow pregnant with the future dean of St Patrick's. So embarrassed had his circum- stances been that, although considerable debts were owing to the estate, Mrs Swift was for the moment unable to pay the expense of his interment. Thus Swift's first experience of life was that of a dependant on the charity of his uncles, more particularly of Godwin ; and the inevitable bitterness of the situation was aggravated by the grudging manner in which the Tipperary official seemed to dole out his parsimonious help. In fact, the apparently prosperous relative was the victim of unfortunate speculations, and chose rather to be reproached with avarice than with im- prudence. A virulent resentment became ingrained into the youth's whole nature, and, though ultimately acquainted with the real state of the case, he never mentioned his uncle with kindness or respect, Other relatives did more to merit his regard. Yet he took no pride in his Irish connexions or nativity, and a singular adventure in his infancy seems to have afforded him a pretext for insinuat- ing that he was really born in England. When he was but two years old his nurse, a native of Whitehaven, was recalled to that town by an illness in her family. So __ attached had she become to her charge as to clandes- tinely carry him away with her, Mrs Swift was induced to consent to his remaining with her for a time, and the child spent three years in Cumberland. By his return his education had made considerable progress, and in the next year he was sent to the grammar school at Kilkenny. There can be no question as to the author of Gulliver having been a remarkable child, but unfortunately only one anecdote of his school-days has been preserved. It is the story, graphically narrated by himself, of his having once invested the whole of his pocket-money in the purchase of an old horse condemned to the knacker's yard, his momentary triumph over his school-fellows, and his mortification on discovering the uselessness of his acqui- sition, an anecdote highly characteristic of his daring pride and ambition, and from 'which, instead of the moral he professed to discover, he might have derived an augury of the majestic failure of his life. In April 1682 Swift matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he failed to distinguish himself. " By the ill-treatment of his nearest relations," he says, mean- ing especially his uncle Godwin, " he was so discouraged and sunk in his spirits that he too much neglected his academic studies, for some part of which he had no great relish by nature ; so that when the time came for taking his degree as bachelor of arts he was stopped of his degree for dulness and insufficiency, and at last hardly admitted in a manner little to his credit, which is called in that college speciali gratia, February 15, 1685." The college roll, nevertheless, shows that the only subject in which Swift absolutely failed was natural philosophy, including mathematics, in which the future author of the Voyage to Laputa was hardly likely to excel, nor is it surprising that a student of fitful and unruly temperament should have performed his obligatory theme negligenter. His examination in Greek and Latin was satisfactory, and the extent of desultory information evinced by his writings seems to prove that he had always been an industrious reader. His mortification made him reckless, and he repeatedly underwent academic censure during the next three years, though it is not certain whether some of the records supposed to apply to him do not in fact relate to his cousin Thomas. XXII. 96