10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



failed, she going off with it wlien slie knew it had missed. The 

 two squabs already in came out now. I saw the four circli)ig 

 together at 10:45. A young one attempted to enter alone at 

 10:51, but its courage failed when it was just over the chimney 

 mouth. Its n)other picked it up again and the two entered at 

 10:5G. Another entered at 10:58 and two more, one of thc^e 

 the bird with the thinly-feathered wing, at 1 1. The latter came 

 out at 1 1 :01 but returned again at 1 1 :22. I ctased watching now 

 for ten minutes and when I canie back to my post (a seat in 

 the back yard that commanded a view of the chimney fifty feet 

 away) a Swift was entering. Anotlier came out almost im- 

 mediately. At 11:42 the two old birds entered, sweeping along 

 until they were right over the chimney mouth at a height of but a 

 few feet, when they spread their tails wide, the unfolded feath- 

 ers showing brown against the sunliglit, and thus staying their 

 flight, dropped straight as leads into the chinmey. The two 

 remained inside. Another, evidently a young one. attempted 

 to enter at 11:46 but failed, as it did twice more between 11:51 

 and 11:52. A young one was still circling about as I climbed 

 up the roof at twelve o'clock sharp to look down the chimney 

 at the birds. I could observe them easily, as the chimney ex- 

 tends but twenty inches above the crest of the roof. Four 

 Swifts were hanging below the nest in a bunch, like bees on a 

 comb. They remained quiet as I, scarcely six feet above them, 

 looked down at them. They turned their heads to look up at 

 me so that I could see how round were their bright eyes and 

 how soft the grey of their throats. This grey, in the gloom of 

 the chimney, contrasted very distinctly with the black-brown 

 of their wings and the sooty-brown of the crowns of their 

 heads. As I stopped lower to look at them more closely 

 they began to mew in a voice I had never heard a Swift use 

 before, a voice something like that of the Catbird's when it 

 mewB and something like that of the Night-hawk's when it 

 twangs nasally, but a voice more subdued than that of either 

 bird. Three of the Swifts fluttered away from their favorite 

 hanging place under the nest, but none flew out of the chimney, 

 and the one that had been circling around when T was mi the 

 roof dropped in a few minutes after I had slid down. 



