194: SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Chap. II. 



a wlntisli gray ; length live and a half inches, aud the stretch of the wings 

 twelve inches. 



"Tiio Chimney Swift or Swallow, Jlirundo pdasgia of Linuajus, and C'/ue- 

 iurapcliiaijia of Stephens; color a sooty brown; length five inches; the stretch 

 of win^s twelve inches ; the tail is short and niucronate. They build their 

 nests frequently in chiiniieys, sometimes in hollow trees. They are small and 

 shallow, aud arc attached to the side of the chimney or tree by an.adlieslve 

 gum or mucilage secreted in the stomach of the architect. They feed their 

 young through the greater part of the night, as the writer has frequently ob- 

 served. The noise they make in passing down and up the chimney resembles 

 distant thunder. 



" Vaux's Chimney Swift, or the Oregon Swift, resembles the one described 

 above; length three and a half to four and a half inches; stretch of the 

 wings ten inches, plus. This species is not rare on the "Western coast. 



"Tlie swallow tribe are remarkable for their social habits, living generally 

 in colonies, constructing their nests together ; and when the season for mi- 

 gration arrives, they leave in large flocks. Tliey usually rear two broods or 

 more per pair during the summer. They frequent watery places or swampy 

 lands, ponds, etc., in pursuit of winged insects, which they take on the wing. 

 In fair weather fhey usually fly high in the air. As the air becomes less 

 dense, the insects fly nearer the earth, and the swallows skim near the sur- 

 foce of the earth or water, which prognosticates rain at hand. The number 

 of flies, gnats, etc., annually consumed by swallows exceeds all calculation. 

 Hence the truth of the observation of a farmer, whose barn-eaves had be- 

 neath them one connected line of diif swallows' nests : ' I am very glad to 

 have these birds here, for my cows and milkers are much less troubled with 

 gnats and flics than before these swallows came in such numbers.' 



"Some farmers try, unwisely, to exclude swallows from their premises, 

 because, say they, ' these birds make dirty work.' Granted, but it is far less 

 troublesome and annoying than the insects of the kinds named, Avhich greatly 

 multiply in the absence of the swallows, swifts, and martins." 



Barn swallows and martins are too M-idely known to make a description 

 of them interesting in this place. Children, however, should always have 

 an opportunity of seeing their portraits and reading their history in Audu- 

 bon or Wilson, as well as that of every other bird, and, by learning their 

 habits, judge which is and which is not beneficial to the farmer. Swallows 

 and martins would certainly not then be doomed to destruction. D. W. War- 

 ner, of Sharon Springs, N. Y., says : 



" My father repeatedly attempted wheat-growing, but as often failed, the 

 weevil taking the whole crop, until a large colony of martins established 

 themselves under the eaves of the barn, since which time he has raised good 

 crops of spring wheat. The wheat has been grown within one hundred rods 

 of the barn. Query — Had the martins anything to do in preventing the 

 appearance of the weevil ?" 



238. Skylarks and Imported Birds. — Several attempts have been made to 



