Swifts. 



Order, Macrochires. 

 Family, Micropodidae. 



•423. CHIMNEY SWIFT. (Chimney Swallow.) Chaetura pelagi- 

 ca. Five and one-half inches long — English sparrow six inches. Very- 

 wide wing-spread. Dark mouse-color. Almost never seen sitting. 

 Cousin to the nighthawk. Twitter as they fly. Glue their nests to 

 the inner walls of chimneys. 



The pies that mother used to make were certainly good and the 

 old stone chimneys that grandfather used to make were wonder- 

 ful. They were large enough for a real Santa Claus to come down 

 and at the bottom of them were fire places with their hanging 

 cranes, their brass andirons and fires all aglow with glory. No 

 rascals were reared within their flickering shadows. The family 

 sat about them in a circle, for there was such a thing as a family 

 circle before the family triangles became so common. How the 

 swallows twittered in those old chimneys! There must have been 

 hundreds of them sitting upon the edges of their nests of sticks and 

 glue, for they glued their nests to the sides of the chimney walls 

 very much as the swallows of China do, that build the edible nests, 

 and every little while a nest of babies would fall down the chimney 

 because they had grown too heavy, for the nest or the glue had be- 

 come melted by a fire thoughtlessly started to burn up some waste 

 paper or to take the dampness out of the air of an unexpected 

 cold day. Poor little things, there was nothing to do but put the 

 fire out and save the rest of them. 



How many evenings I have watched them circling like mad 

 and twittering in their rapid flight as they were clearing the even- 

 ing air of mosquitos. These winged cigars, for that is what they 

 look like, move their wings so fast that scientists cannot tell whether 

 they flap them together or alternately. And the sport came when 

 they went to bed on the side of the nestful of little white eggs. 

 Like streaks of darkness they shot to a point ix few yards above 



