THE CHIMNEY SWIFT 63 



■wings at all hours of the day and night. One 

 night, when one of the broods was nearly fledged, 

 the nest that held them fell down into the fire- 

 place. Such a din of screeching and chattering 

 as they instantly set up ! Neither my dog nor I 

 could sleep. They yelled in chorus, stopping at 

 the end of every half-minute as if upon signal. 

 Now they were all screeching at the top of their 

 voices, then a sudden, dead silence ensued. Then 

 the din began again, to terminate at the instant 

 as before. If they had been long practicing to- 

 gether, they could not have succeeded better. I 

 never before heard the cry of birds so accurately 

 timed. After a while I got up and put them 

 back up the chimney, and stopped up the throat 

 of the flue with newspapers. The next day one 

 of the parent birds, in bringing food to them, 

 came down the chimney with such force that it 

 passed through the papers and brought up in 

 the fireplace. On capturing it I saw that its 

 throat was distended with food as a chipmunk's 

 cheek with corn, or a boy's pocket with chest- 

 nuts. I opened its mandibles, when it ejected a 

 wad of insects as large as a bean. Most of them 

 were much macerated, but there were two house- 

 flies yet alive and but little the worse for their 

 close confinement. They stretched themselves and 

 walked about upon my hand, enjoying a breath 



