AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 195 



and their old homes cut off, they have adapted themselves to the new- 

 condition and now dwell in chimneys that are unused in the summer. A. 

 narrow platform is formed on the side of the chimney, by fastening, 

 numerous twigs together with their glutinous saliva. This is lined with 

 a few grasses and four or five white eggs laid, during June and July. 



in some places remote from human habitations, they still build their 

 queer domiciles in hollow trees, and in many instances have been knowa 

 to attach it to the eaves or rafters of a barn. 



HABITS. 



To observe or study most of our birds, it is necessary to leave the heart 

 of the city and seek them in the suburbs. Not so with this long-winged,, 

 sharp-tailed, sombre colored bit of bird life. The occupant of an apart- 

 ment in the city can sit at the window and observe these birds as readil>^ 

 as the one who resides in the country. 



Just before dusk, large flocks of swifts wheel back and forth over the 

 city, each individual keeping up a continual chattering twitter, as he darts- 

 about catching small insects for his evening meal. As darkness comes,, 

 one by one they disappear down neighboring chimneys, and the silence of 

 the night is unbroken, that is, outside. Within the chimney it is not al- 

 ways silent. The swift is a restless sleeper, and in changing his position 

 frequently disturbs another which has just fallen into a sound slumber; 

 this one in order to show his displeasure, repeatedly jumps backwards and 

 striking his wings against the opposite side of the chimney, springs to his 

 former position again. When a number of them get aroused in this man- 

 ner, the effect on the occupant of a room adjacent to the chimney is any- 

 thing but soothing. 1 have slept in a room where the chimney was oc-^ 

 cupied by but two pairs of swifts, and from the experience gained thereby 

 wish to be excused from occupying a house similar to the one described in 

 the following notes submitted by Mrs. J. E. Chapman, Richmond, Me: 



"The Swifts arrive here some time in May, 1 cannot give the exact time,, 

 but they do not all come at one time. Comparatively few come for per- 

 haps two weeks, and then they come in such numbers that it would seem 

 impossible for them to pack themselves in the chimney. They fly mostly 

 in the evening. At about seven, they begin circling around at some dis- 

 tance from the chimney. They will act as if they were going in but then 

 dart off and fly around for perhaps an hour, when one or two will go 

 down the chimney apd in a short time they all follow. One person says 

 he counted fifteen hundred go in, in one night, but 1 do not see how it 

 would be possible to count them as the air is full of them." 



"One summer we were having some repairs made in our house and they 

 seemed angry about it, and left and went across the street and lodged on 



