The Chimney Swift 217 



the waist. The nests of best quaUty are bound up into 

 packets with strips of rattan, the inferior being simply 

 threaded together; the best packets generally weigh 

 about one and a third pounds, averaging forty nests, 

 and are sold at nine dollars each. These caves have 

 been worked for seven generations without any diminu- 

 tion in the quantity; three crops are taken during the 

 year." 



Our chimney swift is a migratory bird, arriving 

 from Central America, or still farther south, about the 

 middle of April, and remaining until late in September. 

 This bird is usually called a "swallow," or perhaps 

 more frequently a "chimney swallow," but the likeness 

 exists only in its habits and mode of dress, and not in 

 its structure. Even in dress they may be easily dis- 

 tinguished, for the swifts have ten primaries, or long 

 wing-feathers, and an equal number of tail feathers, the 

 shafts of which are exposed at the end, thus aiding the 

 bird in clinging to an upright support; while the 

 swallows have nine primaries and twelve tail feathers. 

 As a matter of fact the swifts are more nearly related 

 structurally to the goatsuckers and humming birds 

 than they are to the swallows. 



Not only is the chimney swift confused with the 

 swallow, but it shares some of the uncanniness ascribed 

 to our bats, snakes, and toads, This is probably due 



