September, 1 91 8] 



The Otiawa Naturalist 



41 



Generally the chimney swift builds in such in- 

 accessible situations that it is not easy to observe 

 their domestic arrangements. One year, however, 

 an unusual chance was offered by a pair who fas- 

 tened their bracket nest to the inside of a wire fire- 

 guard on the hearth of an unoccupied and shuttered 

 summer cottage at Marshall's Bay on Lac des 

 Chats. I had no opportunity of observing the actual 

 building, but the birds seem to have stuck a few 

 twigs here and there on the wires before finally 

 deciding that the right place for the nest was near 

 the top of the guard and about the centre. 



The nest, which was a gocd typical example of 

 chimney swift architecture, was finished about the 

 25th June, and the last of the four elongate white 



that the swiftlets were as much at ease in their 

 crowded nest as the most cherished human babe in 

 its lu.xurioi s cot. 



At any rate their appetites were not suffering, for 

 they clamored incessantly for food with an incredible 

 cry more like the metallic rattle of a mechanism out 

 of order than the voice of a living creature. This 

 loud rasping noise is sometimes only too familiar to 

 an unfortunate individual trying to sleep in a room, 

 the chimney of which has been the fatal choice of a 

 peir of swifts. The parents do not hunt all night as 

 sometimes supposed, but as remarked by Mr. A. G. 

 Kingston in the Ottav^a Naturalist 25 years ago, 

 they take turns at brooding the young, and the roar- 

 ing of their wings in the chimney as they change 

 places every half hour or so, added to the raucous 



^1 



Ne.si_ and esfis of Chimney Swift: about natural size. 



eggs was laid on the 1st July. Authorities differ as 

 to the incubation period of the chimney swift, .somf 

 giving 10 to 12 days, while others hold out for 18 

 days. In this case the young hatched in 16 days, for 

 on the 1 7th July there were four naked and blind 

 little ones in the nest. They grew at an astonishing 

 rate. By the twenty-fifth of the month, though their 

 eyes were not open yet, they filled the nest to over- 

 flowing, and any other young birds not so well fitted 

 to hold on in precarious places, would certainly have 

 fallen out. Only three birds can be seen in the 

 photograph, but the fourth was there, apparently half 

 smothered under the others. Humanly speaking, 

 their position looked fearfully uncomfortable. But 

 we must avoid that deadly sin of science: anthropo- 

 morphism. Despite appearances, we may be sure 



chattering of the disturbed young, makes sleep quite 

 impossible. 



By the 30th July my young swifts were well 

 feathered, and the spiny quills of the tail had ap- 

 peared. I did not see them leaving the nest, but 

 some day early in August they must have crawled 

 and fluttered up the dark chimney to the sunshine 

 and the sky, and launched out on fledgling wings, 

 for on the 10th of the month they were gone. 



Their departure was acclaimed with unfeeling 

 joy by the family who had been induced but only 

 under strong protest, to postpone their usual occu- 

 pation of the cottage until the young birds were 

 gone. And I regret to say that every year since, 

 ignoring the expostulations of the naturalist anxious 

 to investigate further the home life of the swift, the 



