284 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



sailing, as they are, in varying degree, in the flight of all the 

 swallows. 



The swift has been likened to a winged cigar, tapered at both 

 ends, flying through the air. The resemblance is very close, except 

 when the bird fans out its stumpy tail, as it does from time to time. 



The nearly uniform dull color of the swift's under parts and its 

 very short, square tail, combined with its characteristic flight, serve 

 to identify the bird even at a considerable distance. 



Enemies. — Because the swift spends a large part of its life moving 

 rapidly through the air, almost never coming to rest except at its nest 

 or when roosting in a chimney or a hollow tree, it is practically out 

 of reach of any mammal that otherwise might prey upon it. And 

 while flying its speed and its erratic course render it almost immune 

 from attack by hawks. 



In his notes T. E. Musselman cites an exception to this immunity. 

 He says : "I was watching a flock of about 1,500 swifts circling about 

 a chimney in Quincy, 111., forming an avian funnel which was drop- 

 ping into its black depths. It was almost dusk when a sharp-shinned 

 hawk flew from a neighboring sycamore tree to the top of the chimney 

 and seized one of the swifts as it was poised with upturned wings and 

 was just about to drop into its night's sanctuary. The swift squealed 

 as it was being carried away, so I was able to follow the course of the 

 tiny hawk as it flew through the semidarkness back to the tree." 



Musselman (1931) also reports an occasion when swifts were over- 

 come by gas while roosting in the chimney of a church in Quincy, 111. 

 He says : "One cold October night it was necessary to turn on the fire, 

 which resulted in the killing of between 3000 and 5000 Chimney 

 Swifts that had harbored there. Three bushel baskets of dead birds 

 were taken from the flue." 



Julian Burroughs (1922) tells of an instance in which a large number 

 of swifts, taking refuge in a chimney, dislodged the soot. Many were 

 smothered in the chimney, while others, several hundred, evidently 

 confused by the soot, continued down into the house where they were 

 found "on all the mouldings and pictures." These were released ap- 

 parently unharmed. "There were about fifty live ones and fifty dead 

 in the furnace — also ten water-pails full of dead ones in the pipes and 

 bottom of chimney." 



The greatest hazard of the swift's life, perhaps, comes in the spring 

 or early summer when, once in a dozen years or so, a prolonged, drench- 

 ing downpour of rain clears the air of insects, and threatens the local 

 birds with starvation. Brewster (1906), referring to such a storm, 

 says: "The Swifts * * * were seriously reduced in numbers, 

 throughout eastern Massachusetts, during the cold, rainy weather of 

 June, 1903, and the losses which they suffered that season have not as 



