22 THE ORNITHOLOGISTS’ AND QOoLocists’ SemI-ANNUAL. 
THE CHIMNEY SWIFT. 
Chetura Pelasgica. 
BY H. W. DAVIS, NORTH GRANVILLE, N. Y. 
This dusky little summer visitor does not receive half the attention 
and appreciation that it justly deserves. 
Who, on a summer’s afternoon, has not sat and watched it in its 
irregular and rapid flight as it flitted hither 
and thither? Now circling about some old 
chimney, and for a moment hovering over 
its top as though about to descend, and 
just as you look for it to vanish into the 
darkness of the brick walls, like a fickle 
creature, off it will dart, uttering its sharp, 
twittering cry as though defying you, and 
chuckling to itself over your disappoint- 
ment ; then back again it will come, only 
to go through the same evolutions, and 
again disappoint you, if you are watching 
to see it make the descent. 
Its rapidly moving wings and long sweeping symmetrical curves, as 
it sails about, can but commend it to your admiration. 
This little bird, peculiar to America, is found throughout the United 
States, west to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. It is 5.25 
inches long ; wing 5.10; tail 2.15. 
In examining it closely, one finds many points that are very inter- 
esting. The nostrils have a membrane partially covering them behind, 
leaving a small tubular opening. ‘The tongue is sharp and divided. 
The small, slim feet are very muscular and the claws exceedingly sharp. 
The tail is even and the shafts of the tail feathers are elongated into 
sharp and very elastic points. 
It is of a dark sooty-brown above ; somewhat lighter on the rump. 
The feathers on the throat are a beautiful greenish-white. A light 
colored line extends from the bill over the eyes. ‘The small, glisten- 
ing, black eyes are surrounded by a bare, black skin, which (on close 
inspection) gives to the head a rather grotesque appearance. 
The Chimney Swift appears in this section, from the Tropical re- - 
CHIMNEY SWIFT. 
