34 '_ Bird Day Book 



CHIMNEY SWIFT 



Why ever on the wing, or perch'd elate? 

 — Because I fell not from my first estate ; 

 This is my charter for the boundless skies, 

 "Stoop not to earth, on pain no more to rise." 



UNUSED chimneys of old dwellings make favorite roosting and 

 nesting places for these smoke-colored birds. They originally 

 lived in hollow trees until the advent of man furnished more con- 

 venient places. Spines on the end of each tail feather enable them 

 to hang to their upright walls, and slowly to hitch their way to the 

 outer world. Throughout the day numbers of them are scouring 

 the air for their fare of insects, but as night approaches they return 

 to the chimney. The note is a continuous and not unmusical twit- 

 tering uttered while on the wing and also within the depths of the 

 chimney. The nest is made of small sticks or twigs glued to the 

 sides of a chimney and each other by the birds' saliva. The three 

 to five white eggs are long and narrow. 



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SCARLET TANAGER 



♦©♦■ 



THE scarlet tanager is scarlet entirely, except the wings and tail ; 

 the female is greenish-yellow and blackish. These beautiful 

 birds are found in open woods, but they often come out in fields, 

 parks, orchards and in yards when feeding. Besides berries and 

 seeds, they live upon quantities of insects, frequently catching them 

 on the wing in true flycatcher style. The song resembles that of 

 the robin, but is harsher, less varied and higher pitched. They 

 make their nests loosely of twigs and rootlets, on lower branches 

 of trees; the eggs are four in number, and are pale bluish-green, 

 spotted with brown. 



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