SWIFTS. 311 



a. About five inches long. Sooty brown, glossed with 

 green above ; throat, much paler. Lores and wings, black. 



b. The Chimney " Swallows " soon after their arrival con- 

 struct their curious nests, which are composed of twigs firmly 

 glued together by " a fluid secreted with the birds." These 

 nests are now placed in chimneys, almost universally through- 

 out civilized parts of the country, but they have been found 

 attached to boards, and the eggs were originally laid in hol- 

 low trees or stumps. The eggs of each set are four, average 

 .70 X '50 of an inch, and are pure white, unmarked. 



c. The Chimney Swifts possess powers of flight which are 

 probably unsurpassed by those of any bird not belonging to 

 this family. It is almost certain that they often fly no less 

 than a thousand miles in the course of twenty-four hours. 

 When providing for their young, they are sometimes busy dur- 

 ing a greater part of the day, and even continue their labors 

 at night. Usually, they become active at a very early hour, 

 sometimes even before dawn, and retire during the warmer 

 part of the day, unless it be cloudy, when they continue their 

 exercise. At evening, they renew their activity and do not re- 

 tire until a comparatively late hour. The Chimney " Swal- 

 lows " are common summer residents throughout New England. 

 They reach Massachusetts in the first week of May, and leave 

 it in August or September. They have altered their habits 

 conformably to civilization, and here roost and nest exclu- 

 sively in chimneys. Formerly they occupied hollow trees, and 

 Audubon describes as follows a visit to one of their haunts, a 

 large, hollow sycamore near Louisville, in Kentucky. " Next 

 morning I rose early enough to reach the place long before 

 the least appearance of daylight, and placed my head against 

 the tree. All was silent within. I remained in that posture 

 probably twenty minutes, when suddenly I thought the great 

 tree was giving away, and coming down upon me. Instinc- 



are not crossed and recrossed many barns and out-buildings ; but in Massa- 



times each day, during the summer, by chusetts and to the southward they 



these free-roving and interesting birds, probably breed exclusively in chim- 



In northern New England they still neys. They pass the winter far to the 



nest occasionally in hollow trees and southward of the United States. 



very frequently on the inner walls of W. B. 



