97 



or 10,000 would not be far from the true number of the flock. There 

 is at the bottom of the shaft a mass of droppings and feathers, evidently 

 the accumulation of several years, t>ut no sign of a nest anywhere. 

 This place is not made use of by them for that purpose. 



Inspection of the tower during daylight on a number of other 

 occasions when the weather was fine showed not a single swift within. 

 It is well known that they never rest in the open air, and as there 

 appears to be no other roost in this neighbourhood the conclusion is 

 almost unavoidable that these tiny creatures spend the whole 16 or 17 

 hours of the summer day upon the wing. What restless energy in those 

 little pinions ! And what a vast quantity of insect food, in the aggre- 

 gate, must be consumed in order to sustain such untiring muscles ! 



In the year 1869 the late Lt.-Col. Wiley read a paper on "Swallows' 

 before the Ottawa Literary and Scientific Society, in which he gave an 

 interesting account of this same colony. Their favourite rendezvous 

 was then a tower in the Eastern Block, from which they were afterwards 

 excluded by placing a wire netting over the openings. It is to be hoped 

 that they may long remain undisturbed in their present quarters. The 

 good work done by such a flock in clearing the atmosphere of insects 

 must be almost incalculable. And for this we are now more than ever 

 dependent upon the swifts, since almost all the swallows and other 

 insect-eating birds have been driven from their city homes by the Euro- 

 pean sparrows. 



There are several other similar towers about the Government 

 Buildings, but none of these are ever occupied by the swifts, so inten- 

 sely gregarious are they in disposition. When nesting time comes, 

 however, the case is exactly reversed. The birds are scattered over the 

 city and probably far into the country, and seldom, I believe, is there 

 more than one pair found nesting in any one chimney. 



Amongst all the leathered tribes, at the nesting season, the males 

 are endowed with some distinguishing mark of beauty or some acces- 

 sory power of display which serves to point out to the other sex the 

 most vigorous and desirable among many suitors. The brilliant colours, 

 the wonderful growths of ornamental plumes, the sweet songs or extra- 

 ordinary calls of many birds in spring time are all to be accounted for 

 upon this principle. In other species the same end is served by curious 



