G2 'ft (ins. Acad. Sci. uf St. LouU 



5:05 to 5:23, fortv-foiir Swifts wont in. Thev arrived in 

 troops of ten, fonr, fivo, twenty-one and four. The cold 

 weiitlier of October 27, with snow flurries on tlio 28th, 

 made fartlier visits unnecessary. 



Mr. Frank Hand, tlie frentleman who saved onr King- 

 fishers in Forest l*ark from destruction, gave me the 

 result of a \'isit to the roost to see the Swifts leave the 

 chimnev in the earlv morning. He arrived before six 

 o'clock on the morning of October 21, when it was still 

 dark. At 6:12 the Swifts began to come out, one or two 

 at a time, but continuously following each other for thir- 

 teen minutes until (1:25, when the last appeared and left. 

 At the rate of one in a second, he thought 780 left the 

 roost. After flying a few times around the greenhouse 

 they disappeared, mostly southward. 



The exit in the morning is not such a spectacular alTair 

 as the entry in the evening, but it is worth mentioning 

 that I have seen the Swifts go back into their chimney, 

 when after flying around a short time they found the 

 weather cold, with a misty rain and no ])rospect of a 

 breakfast for the moment. I have also repeatedly seen 

 them go into the chimney and remain there during the 

 hottest hours of the day, an observation which explains 

 their sudden commonness toward evening where few or 

 none were seen in the afternoon. 



If the weather be ordinarily favoral)le we may expect 

 to welcome our first Swift about the first of April, hut 

 whether this will be at the Tower Grove Park greenhouse 

 or not will depend on the condition of the furnace. As 

 many fires are still burning under their favorite autumn 

 retreats, the early Swifts have to look for unused chim- 

 neys elsewhere or go directly to the nesting chimneys for 

 rest and shelter. 



While the first Swift arrives at New Orleans between 

 March 18 and 25 (earliest date !March 13), the earliest 

 for southern ^fissouri is ^farch 28 and for St. Louis 

 March 31, 1885. Let us hope that with an unusually early 

 spring we can beat this date in 1921. 



