CHIMNEY SWIFT 279 



active, cheerful presence, if they never came back again. But we may 

 be sure they will come back — next year perhaps — to visit us again, 

 this most welcome "guest of summer." 



Bird banding has brought man and the chimney swift for the first 

 time into close association. During the past few years, swifts have 

 been banded in very large numbers. At daybreak, as the birds pour 

 out of the chimneys where they have roosted during their autumnal 

 migration, they are captured in traps placed over the chimney and so 

 ingeniously devised that the outward flow of hundreds of birds is not 

 interrupted. The banders who have handled the birds report that 

 they show little or no fear (or consciousness) of man and appear 

 tame to an extraordinary degree. 



The following quotations from Constance and E. A. Everett (1927) 

 illustrate their behavior after being caught. These authors state 

 that: "In less than five minutes, with but one casualty, one hundred 

 sixty-four Chimney Swifts were inside of that cage ['a six-foot 

 house trap'], clinging to its walls of wire mesh like a swarm of bees, 

 except that though densely massed, they were clinging to the wire 

 and not to each other. A few were at all times on the wing, as they 

 changed from one group to another, bewildered, perhaps, bat not in 

 the least frightened. Most of them, however, promptly alighted and 

 tucked their heads under the wings and tails of those birds above 

 them, until the inner walls of the cage took on the appearance of 

 being shingled with birds." 



Wlien removed from the cage, "these swifts were very quiet, and 

 apparently comfortable at all stages of the game. Wlien held in the 

 hands they would snuggle between the fingers confidingly ; and when 

 held against the clothes they would wriggle under the folds of the 

 garments and contentedly go to sleep." 



Of the next morning's work they say: "Since there were so few 

 birds, we took the time to enjoy playing with them. Miss Constance 

 and the boys tried wearing them either singly as a brooch, or collec- 

 tively as a breast plate; and always the birds snuggled down as 

 though perfectly willing to join the game, provided their naps were 

 not interfered with. Finally some passing school girls were adorned 

 with live breast pins to take home for show, while several birds, cling- 

 ing to Constance's coat rode many blocks in the car, and, scolding, 

 had to be dragged off to their liberty." 



These observations were made at Waseca, Minn., on September 8 

 and 9, 1926. 



In flight, the swift, perhaps from necessity because the bird spends 

 so much of the day in the air, relieves its wings from time to time 

 from their quick flickering and sails — ^the wings held motioiiless, fully 

 extended from the body. When beating its v/ings, the bird appears 



