Extracts from Diary of Otto Widmann 59 



ern part of Carondelet to the Chain of Rocks, and in the 

 suburbs, there have been and still are a number of chim- 

 neys used for the purpose, some harboring hundreds, 

 some thousands of transients in their passage through 

 the state. To the student of bird migration the visit to 

 such chimneys is of great interest, for it is the only place 

 where he can get early dates for the appearance of the 

 first Swift in spring and for the very last, present in fall. 

 It was thus possible for me to get dates much in advance 

 of others in spring and the latest in fall as long ago as in 

 the year 1885, the report of which has been published by 

 the Department of Agriculture in **Bird Migration in the 

 Mississippi." The whole record of the movements of 

 the species in that spring from March 31 to May 16, and 

 in fall from August 17 to October 17 is given in dry fig- 

 ures, but the exquisite pleasure these visits and observa- 

 tions gave me and my family who helped me has not been 

 told and cannot Ik^ aihMjuately told, one has to witness the 

 sight one's self. 



Many times since then have I watched Swift chinmeys 

 in different parts of the city, but the grand spectacle has 

 never ceased to imbue me with the same feeling of won- 

 der and admiration as it did on the first day. It was last 

 fall that we had the good luck of discovering the roost 

 which in size and accessibility and ease of observation 

 surpasses all others, the chimney of the greenhouse in 

 Tower Grove Park. It was in the late afternoon of Sep- 

 tember 17 that we noticed an unusually large number of 

 Swifts hunting over Shaw's Garden, and following them 

 to the park we came just in time to see the first individual 

 of an enormous mass of highly excited, twittering birds, 

 revolving in a large circle over the greenhouse, drop into 

 the mouth of the chimney. After a few more had fol- 

 lowed a continuous stream poured into the chimney for 

 the next ten minutes without the least interruption. Since 

 each bird balances itself with highly elevated wings and 

 a side to side movement to prevent a too rapid descent. 



