CHAPTER III 



THE ADAPTABILITY OF BIRDS CHIMNEY SWIFT 



A VISIT to any country home where 

 trees are numerous and birds have 

 been protected shows how wonder- 

 fully they have adapted themselves to human 

 habitations and accepted any protection that 

 human beings will give them. They are found 

 nesting in the stable, in the barn, along the 

 rafters, in the sheds, in the trees about the barn 

 and house, in protected fence corners, in the 

 garden, on the vines growing over the house, 

 under the roof of the verandah and in the 

 chimney. 



At this very place less than three hundred 

 years ago the birds had not seen a human 

 habitation save those of the Indians, and had 

 never been forced to leave their natural nest- 

 ing places in the trees or the caves, among the 

 wild ferns and grasses, or beside the silent 

 streams and lakes where no gun had ever been 

 heard. 



[21] 



