152 Field and Forest Rambles. 



little chimney swift (C. pelasgia), which in former times was 

 wont to breed in hollow trees, now prefers the flues of 

 chimneys, where colonies frequently collect, selecting of course 

 such as are not in use. This extremely active creature arrives 

 in central New Brunswick about the beginning of May, whilst 

 its hardier relative, the purple swallow, is one of the earliest 

 visitors, and a sure harbinger of spring, even when frosty 

 nights still retard vegetable growth, and the migrations of 

 less adventurous wanderers. The numbers and powerful 

 whirring motions of the wings of the chimney swift when 

 circling over the housetops during the breeding season are 

 very attractive ; the males, in chasing each other in their 

 love jealousies, sometimes knock together. I watched a flock 

 one afternoon, when one rash bird dashed furiously against 

 another, which fell to the ground dead, as if it had been shot. 

 None of the swallow tribe lag much beyond the end of 

 August in the more inland districts, thus barely remaining 

 three months in the country; but as if conscious that their 

 time is precious, they set to work to nidificate immediately on 

 their arrival, whilst such as rear two broods, or find they are 

 late in accomplishing the object of their sojourn, may be seen 

 drilling their offspring in the morning or afternoon in short 

 flights around the church spires and chimney-tops. Then 

 suddenly the thermometer falls to near freezing at night, and 

 on the following morning all have vanished. It is asserted* 

 that the migratory instinct is so powerful that late in the 

 autumn swallows and house martins frequently desert their 

 tender young, leaving them to perish miserably in their nests. 

 Although I have no experience of such instances, yet I can well 

 believe that this is frequently the case with the above species 

 when rearing the second brood ; indeed, in the case of the 

 Carolina waxwing, which does not arrive in New Brunswick 

 until well on in June, and leaves early in the fall, I found 

 several nests containing dead young birds after the parents 

 * See Darwin, " Descent of Man," vol. i., p. 84. 



