CHIMNEY SWIFT. 5 



and warmly clad creatures. But other questions are not so satisfac- 

 torily answered. What induces the swallows to return to tho north 

 in the spring ? How do they know the direction of their path 

 through the trackless air ? and how are tliey guided on their long 

 journeys ?' These are unsolved problems yet, and it is little wonder 

 that a more superstitious age magnified the mystery, and found 

 these winged sprites fit subjects for augury. But as students have 

 observed bird life more closely, they have learned that there is no 

 more of mystery in the movements of the swallows than of other 

 migrating species. The unsolved problems of bird migration are 

 admitted, but the mystery of the thing has been specially attached 

 to the swallows, because these birds being constantly in the air are 

 more frequently seen than are the birds of the bush, and their 

 coming and going more evident. 



In the autumn the swallows gather in large flocks — flocks num- 

 bered by thousands — preparatory to migrating. They generally 

 rendezvous at some favorite roosting place — a grove or barn. I saw 

 a flock several thousand strong enter a deserted house by means of 

 the chimney, and settle themselves for the night on the floor of the 

 rooms. After several days of restless activity, and much excite- 

 ment during their mid-air meetings, the throng vanished, no one 

 knew whither. Their return is usually unannounced, especially in 

 the more northern districts of their distribution. Sometimes an 

 advanced detachment heralds the approach of the main column, but 

 more often we awake some clear fresh morning in the spring-time, 

 to find the swallows at their old haunts, and moving about in the 

 same familiar, much-at-home fashion, as if the winter storm had 

 lasted but a night. 



CHIMNEY SWIFT. 



This bird so closely resembles a swallow in general form and 

 in habits that it is called *' chimney swallow " the whole country 

 over, but the systematists tell us that it difiers from a swallow 

 very majberially in anatomical structure, and they have classified it 

 in a much lower order, placing it in the same group with the night 

 hawk and hummingbird — a motley group. 



