THE MUSEUM. 



83 



^cteristic of thej author 'and as such 

 will doubtless be treated accordingly. 



We have for some months been 

 filling a good large percentage of said 

 party's orders, and as for the " chest- 

 nuty " stock and various other remarks 

 they compare very well with the news- 

 paper article written up by an entire 

 stranger at $2 a column, also the 

 "various mammoth warehouses and 

 museums, &c.," which are all summed 

 up in one shop (formerly a barn) prob- 

 ably 20x26. Space will not permit 

 us to further review these most extra- 

 ordinary epistles, but if any of our 

 friends haven't seen them yet, advise 

 us and we will furnish them a copy, 

 from the stock that has already been 

 sent to our office, most of which were 

 side lined with remarks we do not 

 care to print. 



The Chimney Swift. 



The Chimney Swift, which is com- 

 monly, but erroneously, called the 

 Chimney Swallow, justly deserves by 

 reason of its peculiar nest, to be called 

 one of the most interesting of New 

 England birds. At the present time it 

 is comparatively rare at least in this 

 immediate locality, but, if we may 

 credit the statements made by the older 

 historians, and by our old men, who, 

 themselves heard it from their grand- 

 fathers, the bird once existed here in 

 prodigious numbers. It is named from 

 the fact, that at the present time it 

 generally builds its nest in the interior 

 of an unused chimney. Rarely it 

 builds in the gables of old barns. 



Its nest it composed of small crook- 

 ed twigs, curiously and ingeniously in- 

 terlocked and woven together and cem- 

 ented by a yellowish, translucent sub- 



stance which closely resembles glue, 

 and which, I believe is manufactured 

 by the bird itself, by means of a series 

 of organs specially for the purpose and 

 which are situated in the bird's mouth. 

 By means of this substance the nest is 

 firmly attached to the interior of a 

 chimney, or to the perpendicular end 

 of a barn. The heat of the sun durinpf 

 a warm summer day is sufficient to 

 melt the glue and this the bird seems 

 to understand, for the nest is never 

 built where the sun's rays can reach it. 

 The glue is likewise soluble in water 

 but this fact the bird does not seem ro 

 realize, for the nest is frequently built 

 in a chimney in such a position that 

 the the rains, entering the chimney 

 dissolve the glue and allow the con- 

 tents to drop. 



Before the country was settled the 

 bird was accustomed to build its nest 

 in hollow trees. It was then, gregar- 

 ious and hundreds of birds sometimes 

 occupied the same tree. Now, how- 

 ever, it is extremely rare to find more 

 than a single nest in the same building. 

 I know of a nest in a barn which has 

 been occupied every season for at least 

 sixteen years and from one to three 

 broods have been raised each year and 

 yet but one pair of birds has ever re- 

 turned in the spring, and so far as I 

 have been able to discover no other 

 nest has been built nearer than two 

 miles. At the present time it is be- 

 lieved that the bird never builds in 

 trees, its residence being either in a 

 barn or in a chimney and generally in 

 the latter place. During the whole of 

 my collecting I have not found more 

 than half a dozen nests except in chim- 

 neys. When in this location the eggs 

 may be collected with very little difii- 



