CHIMNEY SWIFT. 



Cheetura pelagica Stephens. 



I'late XVIII. Fig. 5. 



^HE Chimney Swift, or, as it is often erroneously called, the Chimney Swallow, 

 is one of our most familiar birds during the breeding season, occurring from 

 Florida and Texas northward to Labrador and the Fur Countries, and from the Atlantic 

 to the Plains. It is supposed to winter in such places in the tropics, where flying insects 

 are most abundant. 



In Wisconsin the Chimney Swifts usually arrive between May 9, and May 15; 

 in south-western Missouri I have noticed them rarely before April 15. In Orange Co., 

 Fla., I observed them in the first week of April, and in south-eastern Texas they appeared 

 in large numbers in the last days of March. The swift-flying, sooty little bird, with its 

 long pointed wings and short tail, is seen constantly skimming over the fields and 

 meadows, now high up in the air during fine weather, and now low down when the 

 atmosphere is w^arm and damp, or early in the morning and after sunset. It is often 

 seen in company with the Swallows, hunting for small flying insects, its only food. 

 Being rather crepuscular in its habits, it prefers to hunt for its insect prey in cloudy 

 w^eather, or very early in the morning, shortly after dawn, and in the dusk of evening. 

 "In this it is probably influenced by the abundance or scarcity of insects, as it is not 

 unfrequently to be seen hawking for insects in the bright glare of noon. When they 

 have young, they often continue to feed them until quite late at flight." (Brewer.) 



In its habits the Chimney Swift presents many remarkable differences from 

 most other species, especially those of Europe. "While the latter," according to 

 Dr. T. M. Brewer, "are shy and retiring, shunning the places frequented by man, and 

 breeding chiefly in caves or ruined and deserted habitations, their representatives in 

 eastern North America, like all the Swallow family here, have, immediately upon erection 

 of the dwellings of civilized life, manifested their appreciation of the protection they 

 afford, by an entire change in their habits in regard to the location of their nests. 

 When the country was first settled, these birds were known to breed only in the hollow 

 trunks of forest trees. The chimneys of the dwellings of civilized communities presented 

 sufficient inducements, in their greater convenience, to tempt these birds to forsake their 

 primitive breeding places. The change in this respect has been nearly complete. And 

 now, in the older portions of the country, they are not known to resort to hollow trees 

 for any other purpose than as an occasional roosting place." 



In Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri I have always found the nests of these birds 

 in buildings. Even in Milwaukee and Chicago they are known to nest numerously in 

 chimneys. The first nest of the Chimney Swift which I ever saw, was glued to the 

 rough boards in the inner gable of our bam. This was in the days of my boyhood. 

 For several successive years the paiir glued their nest to the rough boards. It was a 

 very peculiar structure, quite different from all other birds' nests, semi-circular, saucer- 

 ghaped, flat, made of small sticks which were firmly glued together, and there was no 



