230 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



so as to leave an opening. The compartment was about twenty inches 

 square ; the nest was composed of leaves, yet green, bits of paper, 

 chips, a few horse hairs and straw, the leaves and paper forming the 

 lining. This nest contained five fresh white eggs of the following 

 dimensions: i.oox.yi, i.oox.yo, 1.02 x. 70, .96x.68, -96x.68. On 

 June 28 a set of four eggs was taken from the same nest, and presum- 

 ably from the same pair of birds. The materials of this nest were the 

 same as those of the first, except the addition of a piece of tinfoil used 

 to cover tobacco. Incubation had begun, and the female had to be 

 pushed off the nest in order to secure the eggs. Their sizes are .96 x 

 .67, .98x71, .99X.69, i.oox-71. No glue or adhesive saliva joined the 

 materials of the nests together, as is the case with other species of the 

 family whose nidification is known. 



Mr. Gormley states that the birds are rather abundant at Seattle, 

 usually nesting in the cornices of buildings near the water front, in the 

 business part of the city.* 



423. Chaetura pelagica (LINN.) [351.] 



Chimney Swift. 



Hab. Eastern North America, north to Labrador and in the interior to the Fur Countries; west to 

 the edge of the Great Plains. 



The progress of civilization has brought about conditions and causes 

 which have given rise to this bird's common and now appropriate name, 

 Chimney Swift, or, as it is probably better known, Chimney " Swal- 

 low." When the country was first settled this species was known to breed 

 only in the hollow trunks of forest trees, but as soon as the chimneys 

 of dwellings erected by civilized man presented greatei convenience 

 and better security against enemies this bird forsook its primitive nest- 

 ing places, and now only in remote regions or wild portions of the 

 country, where natural facilities are still afforded, it is found breeding 

 in the hollows of decaying trees. 



The nest, as shown in our illustration, is a beautiful semi-circular 

 basket made of small dead twigs of nearly uniform length and thick- 

 ness, and when attached to the inside of a chimney is placed sufficiently 

 below the top to be protected from the rays of the sun. The twigs are 

 broken from trees by the birds while on the wing. They are all strongly 

 cemented together and fastened to the wall with the saliva of the birds. 

 This glue-like substance dries and hardens, and becomes so firm that, 

 when the nest is separated from the sides of chimneys, portions of the 

 brick to which it is fastened often adhere to the structure. My friend, 

 Mr. Arnold Boyle, took a nest of this species from the inside of a barn 

 in Wyandot county, Ohio ; its position was similar to that of the Barn 



* Auk. V, pp. 424-425. 



