CHIMNE V S IVIFT. 



117 



Chimney Swift; Chimney Swallow: CJicettira pela- 

 gic a. 



Length about 5^/2 inches. 

 General color, sooty; throat whitish. 



Wings long and slender; tail short and tipped with spines. 

 Resident (abundant) from April 15 to October 16; winters 

 in Central America. 



" Few sights in the bird world are more familiar 

 than the bow-and-arrow-like forms of these rapidly 

 flying birds, silhouetted against the sky." (Chap- 

 man.) It is interesting to watch a flock at dusk cir- 

 cling about a big chimney, into which, with a twit- 

 tering good-night to the darkening world, they drop 

 one by one, until the last has disappeared. 



There are many chimneys in and about the city 

 which are the summer homes of Swifts, and out in the 

 country there are but few old ones unoccupied by 

 them. Swifts are peculiar in never perching as other 

 birds do, but they hang themselves up against the 

 brick or stone wall of a chimney by catching their 

 claws into a crevice and using the short, stifT tail as 

 a prop. 



The nest is a basket of twigs fastened together and 

 against the wall with glutinous saliva. They gather 

 the material for it on the wing, breaking off dead twigs 

 with beak or feet. The eggs, 4 to 6, are pure white, 

 as in the hidden home no protective markings are 

 needed. 



A Swift's nest in a section of old chimney may be 

 seen at the Smithsonian. 



