Build i}i No. 22. 69 



eggs with accompanying data, as his collection was sold while he was ab- 

 sent on a collecting trip to the far South, and delivered to a person in the 

 west, by a friend, Mr. Zahn, now deceased. 



Frank L. Burns, Berivy7i, Petiyi. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Chimney Swifts. — The Swifts came back to this locality about the 

 19th of April. They paired toward the middle of May, and two of 

 them decided to use one of our chimneys for a home. The nest was 

 begun on Sunday, May 2gth, and was completed on the 3rd of June. 

 The laying began on the next day, when the first egg was laid, and the 

 birds seemed to lay every other day, as eggs were noted on the 6th, 8th 

 and loth of June. They did not waste any time but began to incubate 

 on the day after the last egg was laid — the nth. Between the times of 

 laying the third and fourth eggs the female stayed more on the nest, but 

 hardly enough to be starting to incubate. The morning seemed to be the 

 favorite time for laying, as all four of the eggs w'ere laid sometime during 

 the morning. After the four were laid I tried to take a picture of the 

 nest and eggs, but did not get a very good one for some reason. When 

 I would put the camera in, the bird would crouch lower on the nest, and 

 when I would wave my hand, it would fly off the nest and cling to the 

 wall during the taking of the picture. The nest was about eleven feet 

 below the hole in the chimney through which I was forced to operate. 

 Usually they build above the hole, nearer the top of the chimney. On 

 the 28th of June two of the young Swifts appeared, and on the 29th two 

 more. They grew fairly well until the i6th of July, when the dampness 

 in the air must have caused a tragedy, for on looking into it at the usual 

 time on the 17th, I found that it had dropped to the bottom of the 

 chimney. I noticed that the old birds were down there fussing around, 

 but could not see whether the young were alive ; but in a couple of days 

 three of them appeared on the side of the chimney a foot or so above 

 the bottom. The other must have been killed. These three stayed 

 there for a couple of weeks when they began to slowly climb up the side 

 of the chimney, reaching about the top of it on the 4th of August, and 

 the next day took their first lesson in flying, or at least in the outside 

 world, and surely it must have looked entrancing to them after the 

 depths of the chimney. 



Sidney S. Wilson, .SV. Joseph, Mo. 



Chimney Swift Nesting in a Barn. — July 7, the boy where 1 was 

 working in Albion, Dane Co., Wis., called my attention to the nest of a 



