40 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXII. 



occurring in North America. And of these but 

 one, Chaeiura pclagica, the famihar chimney swift, 

 makes its summer home m the Eastern United States 

 and Canada, where it breeds from Florida to 

 Labrador. 



The chimney swift is essentially a bird of the air 

 and is known to remain for sixteen to eighteen hours 

 continuously on the wing. While its length from 

 beak to end of tail is only 5'/2 inches, its curved 

 wings measure 12'/2 inches from tip to tip. These 

 disproportionate dimensions, together with ils small 

 head and short neck, give the bird a very peculiar 

 shape in flight. It is sometimes called the "bow-and- 

 arrow bird," but it reminds me most of an anchor 

 with a very short stock. The plumage is slaty black 

 with some dark green reflections, the under parts 

 being somewhat lighter, and there is little difference 

 in the colouration of the two sexes. Its small weak 

 feet are not very efficient grasping organs. Conse- 

 quently the chimney swift cannot perch like other 

 birds, and is never seen sittmg on a branch, or roos'.- 

 ing on the wires like the swallows. Except when on 

 its nest, its only resting position is clinging to a 

 vertical surface, in which posture it is supported by 



Spilled tail featliers of Cliimney Swift: natural size. 



the curious spined feathers of its tail. Its rapid wing- 

 beats, alternated by short soarings, sometimes with 

 wing elevated over the back, lack the easy grace of 

 the swallow's flight, but it surpasses the latter in 

 speed and nimbleness. It is said sometimes to use its 

 wings alternately, but I have never been able to 

 satisfy myself of this. Its one and only note, which 

 it keeps up very persistently in flight, has been da- 

 scribed as a "rolling twitter." Chimney swifts are 

 no songsters, and their dull plumage is not black 

 enough to be dignified; but the quaintness of their 

 crescentic forms darting across the sky with shrill 

 artless twitter, is a delight to every nature lover. 

 And if not beautiful, the swift is certainly very 



useful, for no bird does more to ward off the insect 

 plague that constantly menaces mankind. 



Chimney swifts are for us harbingers of summer 

 rather than of spring. They do not arrive in this 

 district until abcut the sixth of May, some four 

 weeks after the swallows and martins ; and it is only 

 towards the end of June that they begin house- 

 keeping. They are now seen frequently flying in 

 threes, v/hich has caused some writers to surmise 

 that the birds are polygamous. But this is an 

 aspersion on their character. What we are really 

 looking at is that thread-bare theme of the novelist 

 known as the "eternal triangle" the courtship of a 

 female by two males. To us the uniformity of 

 plumage among the males would seem to preclude 

 the choice of the female being affected by anything 

 analogous to those points considered so extremely 

 important by the young human suitor, such as the 

 fit of his clothes, color of his necktie or the way he 

 brushes his hair; and it wculd appear that the lady 

 swift must decide for the wooer with the shrillest 

 voice or the freest wing action. But whether her 

 choice be made on these or some more subtle 

 grounds, she soons picks out a mate, and the serious 

 business of nest building commences. 



The chimney swift is one of several native birds 

 that have greatly changed their nesting habits since 

 the arrival of white man in America. A few con- 

 servatives of the species still observe the primitive 

 practice of building in caves or hollow trees, and 

 occasionally a nest is found attached to the inner 

 wall of a shed or outbuilding; but the great majority 

 of them justify their popular cognomen by nesting in 

 disused chimneys. All the life activities of the swift, 

 except sleeping, egg-laying and hatching, are per- 

 formed on the wing, and even the twigs of which it 

 builds its nest are gathered in full flight. Hovering 

 a moment over a dead and brittle branch, it drops 

 with elevated wings, and grasping at a dry twig with 

 its claws, breaks it off and flies away with it. (It 

 is stated that it sometimes breaks twigs off with its 

 bill, but I have always seen it use its claws). Eight 

 or ten feet down inside the chimney it glues these 

 twigs to the wall and to one another with its viscous 

 saliva, building them into a shallow semi-circular 

 nest, about 4 inches wide, and projecting about 2^ 

 inches from its support. The natural glue secreted 

 by the chimney swift seems to be practically in- 

 soluble. Prolonged soaking of a nest in water 

 causes the adhesive to swell and soften, but does not 

 melt it. Even boiling water fails to liquefy it, and 

 on drying it becomes quite hard again and holds the 

 twigs together as firmly as ever. No doubt this 

 insolubility ensures the nest holding together in wei 

 weather; but it must be said that sometimes the rain 

 softens the attachment to the wall and the weight of 

 the nestlings causes a disastrous fall. 



