212 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



CHIMNEY SWIFT; CHIMNEY SWALLOW 



July 29, 1856. Pratt gave me a chimney swallow's 

 nest, which he says fell down Wesson's chimney with 

 young in it two or three days ago. As it comes to me, 

 it is in the form of the segment of the circumference 

 of a sphere whose diameter is three and a half inches, 

 the segment being two plus wide, one side, of course, 

 longer than the other. It bears a little soot on the inner 

 side. It may have been placed against a slanting part 

 of the chimney, or perhaps some of the outer edge is 

 broken off. It is composed wholly of stout twigs, one 

 to two inches long, one sixteenth to one eighth inch in 

 diameter, held quasi cob-fashion, so as to form a sort of 

 basketwork one third to one half inch thick, without any 

 lining, at least in this, but very open to the air. These 

 twigs, which are quite knubby, seem to be of the apple, 

 elm, and the like, and are firmly fastened together by a 

 very conspicuous whitish semi-transparent glue, which 

 is laid on pretty copiously, sometimes extending con- 

 tinuously one inch. It reminds me of the edible nests of 

 the Chinese swallow. Who knows but their edibleness 

 is due to a similar glue secreted by the bird and used 

 still more profusely in building its nests ? The chimney 

 swallow is said to break off the twigs as it flies. 



Aug. 23, 1856. J. Farmer says that he found that 

 the gummed twig of a chimney swallow's nest, though 

 it burned when held in a flame, went out immediately 

 when taken out of it, and he thinks it owing to a pecul- 

 iarity in the gum, rendering the twig partly fire-proof, 

 so that they cannot be ignited by the sparks in a chim- 



