i8o Birds Every Child Should Know 



the insects on them, just as cowbirds follow 

 oiir cattle; and he imagined the bird was 

 actually drinking the goat's milk! 



CHIMNEY SWIFT 



There are some children, and grown-ups, too, 

 who persist in calling this bird the chimney 

 swallow, although it is not even remotely 

 related to the swallow family, and its life his- 

 tory, as well as its anatomy, are qmte different 

 from a swallow's, as you shall see. 



Down within some unused chimney, the 

 modem babies of this soot-coloured, dark, 

 grayish-brown bird first open their eyes. Old- 

 fashioned swifts still nest in hollow trees or 

 caves, but chimneys are so much more abundant 

 and convenient, that up-to-date birds prefer 

 them. Without stopping in their flight, the 

 parent swifts snap off with their beaks or feet, 

 little twigs at the ends of dead branches, and 

 these they carry, one by one, into a chimney, 

 gluing them against the side until they have 

 finished an almost fiat, shelf -like, lattice cradle. 

 Where do they get their glue? Only during 

 the nesting season do certain glands in their 

 mouths flow a brownish fluid that quickly gums 

 and hardens when exposed to the air. After 

 nursery duties have ended, the gland shrinks 



