BIRDS OF DURHAM AND VICINITY. 
57 
disappearance for the same years were October i , September 4, and 
September 12. The October record, which is an exceptionally late 
one, was made by a flock of about forty, which came to town on the 
date mentioned. They spent the afternoon hunting flies at the mill- 
pond, and during the afterglow following sunset came to the village 
where I saw them circling about the house-tops, with the evident 
intention of going to bed. As dusk deepened they began to central- 
ize their movements around the large old-fashioned chimney in the 
house of Mr. Charles Hoyt. Time and again they wheeled around it, 
and made feints at descending until, finally, one of the leaders raised 
his wings like a letter V and dropped into the flue, followed by 
twent3'-five of his comrades. They went down in rapid succession 
about eighteen inches apart, with as much precision as a body of 
trained soldiers. When, at last, one lacked the courage or dexterity 
to follow its leaders, and shot down to one side, all the rest followed, 
and then the circling process was repeated. Every time round they made 
a pass at the chimney. When the. next descent was begun it contin- 
ued till only four remained outside. These were evidently timid, for 
it was five minutes, by my watch, before the last one dropped out of 
sight. They left early the next morning and I saw no more swifts 
till the twenty-seventh of the following April. On that day I saw a 
pair flying about the village in the afternoon. When night came I 
posted myself where I could keep watch of Mr. Hoyt's chimney to see 
if it were a regular lodging place for transient swifts. I did not look 
in vain, for at the proper time they came and went in. I have seen 
other migrants since then visit the same chimney, and have come to 
regard it as a sort of Swdft hotel. 
Chimney Swifts live on flying insects, the different species of 
Diptera constituting a large part of their bill of fare. They fly high 
or low according to the location of their prey, and " bug hunters'' do 
well to look ai swifts before going out with a net to catch flies. They 
are always ready to take advantage of opportunity and congregate 
very quickly wherever food is plentiful. I have repeatedly seen dozens 
of them accompanying a mowing-machine, feasting on the jassids 
driven up as the grass fell. An unvarying plan of taking food on the 
wing has given the swift tireless powers of flight, and at the same time 
allowed its feet and legs to weaken by disuse into mere hooks, incapa- 
ble of holding the bird on a roost, only sufficient to support its weight 
when assisted by the stiff' tail against a rough vertical surface. Few 
birds are abroad so many hours of the day as swifts. When the young 
are in the nest, their parents are on the wing from daybreak till long 
