12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



she thought it alile to shift for itself, or it may be that it was 

 not fed because it was not in what she considered its proper 

 place on the northeast wall. I never saw her feed it unless it 

 was on that wall below the other two. It was not in place on 

 the mother's 2:31 trip, nor on her 2:55 trip. It was in place 

 at 3:15 and was fed. It followed the mother out after her visit 

 at 3:40. She returned at 3:54, then at 4:31, and then at 4:50. 

 On this last visit she staid in for two minutes instead of for the 

 usual thirty seconds. Her remaining visits before all were in 

 for the night were at 5:18, 5:22, 5:43, 6:05, 6:40, 6:54 and 7:10. 

 Just after seeing the mother enter this last time I went up to 

 the roof and saw four Swifts hanging in such a bunch as I have 

 described before; the old bird flew out as soon as I drew back 

 from the chimney-top. At 7:29 I saw a bird return, but 

 whether the mother or the father (the one with the thinly-feath- 

 ered wing) it was too dark to make out. Another went in before 

 7:30. I again climbed up to look down the chimney, but it 

 was now too dark for me to see the birds. Even a light held at 

 the bottom of the chimney did not illuminate it enough for me 

 to make out their number. I let a lantern down from the top 

 but it so distressed them, driving them, as I gradually lowered 

 it, further and further down the chimney, with great drumming 

 and mewing, that I desisted. 



Except on the rarest occasions the Swifts entered the chimney 

 from one direction and left in another. They almost invariably 

 tossed themselves out to the northwest, for in that direction 

 were fewest trees. They did not habitually come in from this 

 direction, for the reason, I suppose, that they would have to 

 face about in dropping, so as to land on the northeast wall be- 

 low the nest. If they came in from any other direction than 

 from the southwest, though, it was from the northwest. About 

 two hundred feet to the southwest of the chimney are trees very 

 much higher than the chimney, very tall trees indeed, and in 

 order to enter so they might face the northeast wall on which they 

 customarily hung, they had to come through an opening in the 

 trees dead south of the chimney and then turn sharply north- 

 east within a hundred feet of the chimnej'. I never saw them 

 dive down from over the great trees to the southwest. At times 



