CHIMNEY SWIFT. 211 



chimney. If they contain young partly grown the little fellows manage to clamber up the 

 sides and cling to the bricks, remaining in this position until able to fly. They appear to 

 suffer no more inconvenience than if in the nest as they are regularly cared for by the par- 

 cuts. When the Swifts enter a narrow flue, they proceed in a singular manner; balanc- 

 ing themselves for a moment over the opening and elevating their wings to the utmost, 

 they will settle downward but a too vapid descent is avoided by oscillating the body from side 

 to side. When ascending, the wings are vibrated rapidly, causing a noise which resem- 

 bles distant thunder. They are very devoted to their offspring and I once observed a 

 touching display of this. A house in the chimney of which a pair of these birds had a 

 home, was on fire, the roof had fallen in, thus the flames were leaping upward with fury 

 and the intense heat caused all in the immediate vicinity to withdraw, when I observed a 

 Chimney Swift circling high over the burning pile; it paused above the chimney which con- 

 tained its ^oung, balanced itself for a moment, and, to my astonishment, dropped quickly 

 with the usual rocking motion, into a flue which was surrounded by bricks that were fairly 

 glowing with heat. This extreme devotion to its young must have caused its death as 

 it did not appear again; in fact, it could not have lived a moment in the furnace which it 

 entered. 



Swifts are very tenacious of life and this is not only true of our species but, as I once 

 learned to my cost, is also noticeable in at least one other. I was passing through afield 

 near my place in Newtonville in the summer of 1877, when I observed a singular appear- 

 ing bird clinging to a pole which was lying on top of a wall. It was nearly the size of a 

 Night Hawk but its manner of clinging to the wood was so different that I saw at once that 

 it was not this species. I approached it cautiously but when I was within twenty yards, 

 it turned its head to look at rue and then I saw that it was a huge Swift of some species. 

 I instantly raised my gun and shot at it, knocking it off its perch but on the opposite side 

 of the wall from that on which I was standing. Thus I lost sight of it for a moment, only 

 to see it again mounting in air some fifty yards away, too far to get a second shot with 

 tlie light charge with which my remaining barrel was loaded. It was evidently wound- 

 ed badly for it flew laboriously but with the characteristic flight of the Swifts. I watched 

 it anxiously as if, continued to mount upward, expecting every moment to see it fall but 

 was disappointed for it disappeared in the distance and I never saw it again. What it was 

 is, of course, only a matter of pure conjecture. 



The only notes that the adult Chimney Swifts utter is a kind of rattle which is given 

 quite slowly when the birds are moving moderately but as the speed is increased, the notes 

 are poured forth more rapidly and end in a perfect chatter. The young make a hissing 

 noise when the parents appear which sounds quite loud in the chimney. The eggs of the 

 Swifts are deposited the last week in May but the young do not leave the chimneys until 

 the last of August at which time they are nearly fledged and resemble the adults so close- 

 ly in flight that it is almost impossible to detect the difference. The Swifts do not remain 

 late in autumn but migrate, at least, by the first of October, departing as they arrive, in a 

 body. I do not think that they linger on their autumnal migration but leave at once for 

 the 



