42 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXII. 



last callous act of the family in the fall before leav- 

 ing the cottage, is to place a board over the top of 

 the chimney. 



According to Audubon, sometimes thirty or more 

 pairs of swifts used to build in the same hollow 

 tree; but nowadays their habit is solitary, and it is 

 rare to find two nests in the same chimney. Both 

 before and after the breeding season, however, they 

 are essentially gregarious, and gather sometimes in 

 immense flocks to pas-v the night together in some 

 large chimney or similar shelter. On such occasions 

 they may be seen at dusk flying over the chimney 

 in a close swirling cloud, which gradually assumes 



flocks number only a few hundreds. The swift 

 population of Arnprior divides up in the fall among 

 several chimneys in the town, the most numerous 

 assemblage perhaps three or four hundred birds 

 occupying one of the large chimneys of the Roman 

 Catholic Church, while smaller flocks take refuge 

 m a couple of store chimneys. 



If the chimney swifts come later in the spring than 

 the martins and others of the swallow tribe, they 

 make up for it by staying longer in the fall. Most 

 years they are abundant around Arnprior until 

 nearly the middle of September, when they suddenly 

 disappear, the whole flock evidently having flown off 



Young (.'liimiiey Swifts about one week uld; iiatuiMl size. 



the shape of a hollow inverted cone ; and from the 

 bottom of this living whirlpool, the birds drop con- 

 tinually into the chimney until all are within. 

 Audubon relates that in his time seven or eight 

 thousand swifts congregated thus in a large hollow 

 tree near Louisville, Kentucky. And in his interest- 

 ing article in the Ottawa Naturalist already referred 

 to, Mr. A. G. Kingston tells of the enormous flock 

 that used to gather nightly in a ventilating tower on 

 the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa, the number of 

 birds being estimated by Mr. Kingston at from nine 

 to ten thousand. But these are exceptionally large 

 congregations, attracted together, no doubt, by the 

 size and convenience of the shelters. Usually the 



to the south altogether. But Mr. Liguori Gormley, 

 who keeps a careful watch on bird doings in this 

 district, informs me that usually, after a pericd of ten 

 days or so during which not a swift is to be seen 

 anywhere, a few will be observed towards the end 

 of the month flying over the town. These are ap- 

 parently birds that have nested much farther north, 

 and now, responding to the hereditary impulse of 

 their race, are directing their course like the others 

 for Yucatan or Nicaragua, with that unerring sense 

 of direction, which, although commonly exhibited 

 by many creatures, is a marvel to man because in 

 the course of his evolution, he has largely lost it. 



