282 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Two specimens in the D. H. Talbot collection, University 

 museum, were sent to Robert Ridgway and identified as sennetti. 

 No. 19833, male, Sioux City, Iowa, July 21, 1884; No. 17887, 

 juvenile, Monona county, Iowa, Sept. 11, 1885. Dr. I. S. Trostler 

 writes that the species is an " abundant migrant, common sum- 

 mer resident. This is the common variety (Pottawattamie-Mills). 

 C. V. hemyi also probably occurs. I have killed no henryi in 

 Iowa, but have done so in Nebraska near the Missouri River." 



Suborder CYPSEIvI. Swifts. 



Family MICROPODID^. Swifts. 



The common Chimney Swift is the only representative of this 

 family in Iowa. Thej^ are commonly but erroneously called 

 Chimney "Swallows," chiefly from the similarity in their feed- 

 ing habits with the true Swallows. They are strictly insectivor- 

 ous, feeding entireh' while flying, and a Swift is almost never 

 seen to alight. 



Subfamily CH^TURIN^. Spine-tail Swifts. 

 Genus Ch.^tura Stephens. 



190. (423). Chcztiira pelagica {h\nn.). Chimney Swift. 



The Chimney Swift is an abundant summer resident in Iowa 

 from the middle of April to the middle of September. They may 

 be seen dashing overhead and twittering at all hours of the day, 

 flying lower in cloudy weather. At the present time the nests 

 are built almost exclusively in chimneys, composed of short dead 

 twigs .snapped off by the bird while on the wing and cemented 

 together and to the chimney wall by the vascid saliva of the birds. 

 In 1867 J. A. Allen (Notes on the Birds Observed in western 

 Iowa, Mem. Bost. Soc, i, 1868, p. 498), reported the bird as 

 "Common. Breeds in hollow trees. In no instance could I hear 

 of its resorting to chimneys, which in general are poorly adapted 

 to its needs, consisting either of a joint of stovepipe, or a patent 

 one of cast-iron." The species has now almost forgotten its tree- 

 nesting habits in Iowa, although Dr. Charles P. Keyes writes: 

 "In June, 1894, I collected at intervals of two weeks, two nests 

 and sets of four and five eggs of this species from^a large hollow 

 linden" (Linn county). 



