The Chimney Swift 207 
the waist. The nests of best quality are bound up into 
packets with strips of rattan, the inferior being simply 
threaded together; the best packets generally weigh 
about one and a third pounds, averaging forty nests, 
and are sold at nine dollars each. ‘Fhese caves have 
been worked for seven generations without any diminu- 
tion in the quantity; three crops are taken during the 
Vear.' 
Our chimney swift is a migratory bird, arriving 
from Central America, or still farther south, about the 
middle of April, and remaining until late in September. 
This bird is usually called a “swallow,” or perhaps 
more frequently a ‘‘chimney swallow,” but the likeness 
exists only in its habits and mode of dress, and not in 
its structure. Even in dress they may be easily dis- 
tinguished, for the swifts have ten primaries, or long 
wing-feathers, and an equal number of tail feathers, the 
shafts of which are exposed at the end, thus aiding the 
bird in clinging to an upright support; while the 
swallows have nine primaries and twelve tail feathers. 
As a matter of fact the swifts are more nearly related 
structurally to the goatsuckers and humming birds 
than they are to the swallows. 
Not only is the chimney swift confused with the 
swallow, but it shares some of the uncanniness ascribed 
to our bats, snakes, and toads. This is probably due 
