therefore, the bhiebirds are already established on the premises, it would be wise 

 to place the wren box as far away as possible; even then the bluebird may drive 

 the wren to a neighboring yard. 



This is more likely to happen in the spring before the vines and leaves offer 

 the wren good hiding places. 



The wren is probably the cause of this ill feeling. He can not resist the 

 temptation to enter into every hole he finds. He has a passion for house clean- 

 ing or for mischief, maybe for both. He slips into the boxes of the bluebirds 

 and swallows and throws out their nesting material, not for use in his own nest, 

 but apparently just for fun. He will bring bit after bit, feather after feather, 

 to the doorway and flirt it out. With head tilted to one side he watches, with 

 apparent pleasure, the bit or feather fall or float away. 



No wonder that the bluebird does not wish him for a neighbor. 



The Chimney Swiit {Chaetura pelagica) 



By Thomas Nuttall 



Length: 5 jE/2 inches. 



Range : Eastern North America, north to Labrador. Food consists entirely 

 of insects. 



Nest : Usually cemented to inside wall of a chimney ; eggs, 4 to 6. 



This singular bird, while passing the winter in tropical America, arrives in 

 the middle and northern States late in April or early in May. Its migrations 

 extend at least to the sources of the Mississippi, where it has been observed by 

 travelers. 



More social than the foreign species, which frequent rocks and ruins, our 

 Swift takes advantage of unoccupied and lofty chimneys, the original roosting 

 and nesting situation having been tall, gigantic hollow trees, such as the elm 

 and the buttonwood or sycamore. The nest is formed of slender twigs neatly 

 interlaced, somewhat like a basket, and connected sufficiently together by a copious 

 quantity of adhesive gum or mucilage secreted by the glands beneath the tongue 

 of the curious architect. This crude cradle of the young is small and shallow, 

 and attached at the sides to the wall of some chimney, or inner surface of a 

 hollow tree. It is wholly destitute of lining. 



So assiduous are the parents that they feed the young through the greater 

 part of the night; their habits, however, are nearly nocturnal, as they fly abroad 

 most at and before sunrise and in the twilight of evening. The noise which 

 they make while passing up and down the chimney resembles almost the rumbling 

 of distant thunder. 



When the nest gets loosened by rains so as to fall down, the young, though 

 blind, find means of escape, by creeping up and clinging to the sides of the 



80 



