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How the Chimney Swift secures Twigs for its Nest. — Among some of 
the beautiful drawings of birds done by Mr. L. A. Fuertes, and submitted 
to my approval by the Messrs. Macmillan of New York, with reference to 
their publication in a work for which I am partly responsible, there was 
one which I ‘ held up ’ for further consideration. This represented a 
Chimney Swift in the act of snapping off a bit of twig with its feet, like a 
hawk seizing its prey. We have always supposed the bird secured the 
object with its beak, as it dashed past on wing at full speed; or at any rate 
that has been my own belief for more years than I can remember. But 
Mr. Fuertes vouched for the correctness of his representation from actual 
observation. The question being thus raised, I set it forth recently in a 
query inserted in one of our popular periodicals, 1 asking for information. 
I have received a number of replies, mostly corroborating the traditional 
belief, on what purports to be sufficient observation of the bird in the act. 
But Mr. Fuertes is supported in his view by Mr. Frank J. Birtwell, of 
Dorchester, Mass., from wihose letter I quote : “ In 1894 I spent the summer 
at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where the Swift is common, nesting in unused 
chimneys of the village. The bird flies to a tree, usually a spruce, and 
alights on a dead twig, her weight or the action of her wings snapping it 
off. She then carries it off in her feet. Last May 23d a Swift flew to a 
willow near where I was standing, and snapped off a dead twig in the 
same manner.” This is precisely the performance which Mr. Fuertes’s 
drawing represents. — Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C. 
‘‘The Nidologist ’ for March, just to hand, contains (pp. 80, 81) several 
replies to my interrogation — and these leave the case still open ! 
vi 
