February, 1892.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



29 



resorted to, to get rid of them. The hotel 

 building in the village afore mentioned had an 

 old-fashioned, great fireplace chimney. In its 

 roomy recesses scores of Swifts brooded every 

 summer. The landlady, a fussy, nervous 

 body, was very much annoyed by their noisy 

 demonstrations during the night time. Deter- 

 mining to get rid of them, she took a straw 

 tick and, emptying its contents into the wide 

 fireplace, she set it on fire. This did the work 

 for the baby Swifts, but the heartless woman 

 was punished for her cruelty. The stench 

 that arose from the half-roasted bodies of the 

 birds was so great that for many days the 

 building was almosr uninhabitable. 



In the dusk of the evening, just before 

 retiring for the night, the Swifts will descend 

 to the streets, and skim rapidly about close to 

 the ground, getting a supper. I have seen the 

 village boys, armed with long cane fishing- 

 poles, station themselves on either side of the 

 street, and vainly try to hit them as they 

 would flit rapidly by. The birds appeared to 

 take but little notice of tlie efforts of the boys, 

 and it seemed inevitable that some of them 

 would be killed. But the blows, seemingly 

 without effort on the part of the Swifts, would 

 be dexterously avoided, and by their contin- 

 ually returning and circling over the boys' 

 heads, they appeared to enjoy the sport nearly 

 as much as did the gamins, and their joyous 

 twitterings seemed to say to them, ''hit me if 

 you can I" 



Swallow trees, where hundreds of these 

 birds would congregrate to roost at night, 

 have been described by observers from various 

 parts of the country. Two or three years ago 

 I had the good fortune to discover one of these 

 novel resorts of the Chcetnra peku/ica. In the 

 dusk of the evening I was riding along through 

 some heavy timber on the river road four 

 miles below the village. My attention was 

 suddenly attracted by the great number of 

 Swifts tliat were flying rapidly about in circles. 

 After observing them for some moments, I 

 presently saw that their lines converged 

 towards a large sycamore that stood at the 

 edge of the wo(tds a little distance away. It 

 was about eighteen feet in circumference, and 

 at a height of about fifty feet had been broken 

 squarely off, presenting much the appearance 

 of a factory chimney, the cavity extending 

 cleai' down to the ground. Into this opening 

 the birds were settling by scores. Hunting up 

 a heavy club I approached the tree and dealt 

 it a resounding whack. The roar produced 

 by the Swifts rushing out of the tree could be 



likened to nothing but heavy thunder. The 

 air, too, was black with the dusky birds, rush- 

 ing, circling, gyrating swiftly among the trees; 

 their rapidly uttered notes of tsij), tsijy, tsip, 

 tsee, tsee was almost deafening, though not 

 unpleasant to tlie ear. In a few moments they 

 were again dropping rapidly into the hollow 

 cavity of the tree. 



No bird produces a more singular nest than 

 does the Swift. It is formed entirely of very 

 small twigs, which are broken from the limbs 

 while the bird is on the wing. These twigs 

 are cemented together by a glutinous saliva 

 from the bird's mouth, and the whole inside 

 of the nest is thickly coated with the same 

 material. No soft lining, whatever, is used, 

 and the nest in the form of a crescent is 

 attached to one side of the wall. The usual 

 number of eggs is four, but I have often 

 observed six in a nest. The young birds liave 

 a habit of leaving the nest sometimes a week 

 before they are able to fly and cling to the 

 sides of the chimney, where they are fed by 

 the parents till able to take to the wing. 



W. S. Strode, M.D. 



Beniadotte, III. 



An Early Bird. 



Tlie old adage that '' The early bird catches 

 the worm" does not always prove true, at 

 least not in the case about to be mentioned. 

 On January 20th, with the thermometer ten 

 degrees below zero, and about eight inches of 

 frozen snow on the ground, an adult 9 Robin 

 put in an appearance here (Ballston Spa, N. Y.). 

 As there are no worms to be found here at 

 this time of the year I substituted a small 

 charge of dust shot, with the desired result. 

 This is the earliest record, to my knowledge, 

 of the arrival of the Robin in Saratoga Co. 



.S. B. Ingersoll. 



Quite a number of our old subscribers are 

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