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Birds of Massachusetts. 189 
are often dislodged, and come down with the young . 
in them; sometimes the young fall out of the nest. 
In either’ case, they scramble up the chimney and 
support themselves with their claws and their tail, 
till they are able to fly, in a place near the mouth of 
the flue, where the parent can conveniently feed 
them. Before the end of the summer they all dis- 
appear, leaving us earlier than other swallows, be- 
cause — have a git oon. to € pi 
a Pie 
The Vase food —M vedere 
not often seen, because compelled, by its d cate 
sense of vision, to retreat into the forests to escape 
the blaze of day ; but every one knows its wild and 
melancholy song, which, when. it first arrives, is 
heard from the distant woods, but comes nearer as 
the season advances, and at last is heard very near 
the dwellings € of men. The s song of birds is always 
expressive of happiness ; ‘but the complaining notes 
of the whippoorwill seem to indicate suffering, and 
create a sympathy in the hearer, which the case of 
the bird does not call for; since, all this while, it is 
collecting moths, beetles, ants and grasshoppers ; and, 
instead of foreboding change and disaster, it is em- 
ployed advantageously for us, and no doubt to its - 
own satisfaction, in destroying insects that trouble 
the repose of the cattle. The barn-yard affords it a 
foraging ground, which it often visits ; sometimes it 
takes its station on the step of the house door, not 
chasing its prey on the wing, like the night hawk, 
but waiting till insects pass by; when they appear, it 
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