OUR PRICELESS SWALLOWS 



are very tender, and late cold storms, combined with 

 the attacks of the English Sparrow, have almost ex- 

 terminated them in the New England States. In 

 populated regions at present they generally breed in 

 bird-boxes which people are glad to prepare for them. 

 Sometimes, after prolonged cold rain storms in June, 

 whole colonies of Martins, old and young alike, have 

 been found dead in their nesting boxes. I never see 

 them now except as migrants. Their original manner 

 of nesting was in hollow trees, like the Tree Swallow. 

 Out in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota I once 

 found them breeding quite plentifully in the poplar 

 timber, and took a picture of a pair of them as they 

 alighted on the branch of a stub near their nest cavity, 

 an old woodpecker hole. 



We have just one more bird to tell of in this chapter, 

 the one that people persist in calling the Chimney 

 Swallow. In general appearance and habits it is 

 swallow-like, but in structure it is quite different, and 

 belongs to the family called Swifts. So let us get 

 used to calling it by its right name, Chimney Swift, 

 and be accurate. 



Its feet are so weak and cramped that it does not 

 perch, but clings to a perpendicular surface, such as 

 the inside of a chimney or a hollow tree, propping itself 

 from behind with its peculiar tail, each feather of which 

 ends in a sharp spine or spike. But in flight it is master 

 of the situation, and well deserves its university degree 

 of Swift. Almost ceaselessly, oftentimes by night as 



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