132 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



in Monona Co., western Iowa, and is therefore likely to occur in 

 the prairie part of Missouri. Mrs. V. Bailey writes: "Though 

 lighter than virginianus, henryi is much darker than sennetti, 

 which is light brown, buffy, and on wing coverts mainly whitish." 

 Also: "top of head brownish instead of blackish, wing coverts 

 largely whitish, under parts with dark bars brown instead of 

 black, spaced with white instead of buffy." 



Suborder Cypseli. Swifts. 

 Family Mychopodidae. Swifts. 

 Subfamily Chaeturinae. Spine-tailed Swifts. 

 *423. Chaetura pelagica (Linn.). Chimney Swift. 



Hirundo pelasgia. Cypselus pelasgia. Chaetura pelasgia. Chimney Swal- 

 low. 



Geog. Dist. — Breeds in Eastern North America from Florida 

 to Labrador and Manitoba; west to eastern Nebraska and Kan- 

 sas, extending its range with settlements westward. In winter 

 to Gulf of Campeachy. 



In Missouri the Chimney Swift is a very common summer 

 resident wherever there are chimneys for it to use; it is most 

 abundant in towns and villages, especially old settlements along 

 rivers, but deserts the densely built-up parts of the largest 

 cities. There is no doubt that the Swifts of Missouri outnumber 

 by far all the species of swallows taken together, because their 

 distribution is not local but universal. Where no chimney but 

 access to the attic or an outbuilding can be had, they find such 

 places to their liking and stick their nests to rough boards, 

 sometimes several in close proximity, but never one below an- 

 other. In the region of the Water Tupelo, the trunks of which 

 are sometimes hollow from top to bottom with large opening on 

 top, the Swifts still observe the custom of former ages, using them 

 for roosts and nests; but such cases will become rarer now as 

 did the use of the hollow Sycamores in the river bottoms a genera- 

 tion ago. The Swift has profited more than any other species 

 of birds by the change which civilization has brought about, 

 and it was, indeed, a fortunate and momentous event when its 

 ancestors for the first time dared to enter and nest in the chimneys 

 of the early settlers. Though places more or less suitable for 

 nests may not have been very rare before the advent of the white 



