7/'7/l i 
Chimney 
Swifts 
Evening 
walk . 
Birds 
singing, at 
evening 
during which time they kept flying around and around. When 
I came out of our house a little later, they had all dis¬ 
appeared. 
At frequent intervals last night between 9 and 11 P. M, 
I heard Swifts "rumbling" in our chimney. What can they 
have been doing? The rumbling frequently occurred repeatedly 
at short intervals — certainly not over hald a minute — 
thus leading me to conclude that they were not passing out 
of and into the chimney but merely hovering — or something 
of the kind — within it. Can they have been teaching 
their young to fly? The night was dark and clear. I also 
heard this rumbling at various times through the day. 
After tea I took my usual walk. There was a 
superb sunset but I missed the best of it by turning into 
Derby’s Lane and keeping on up the Da.msdale to Pratt’s 
Nursery and beyond. The evening was still and comparatively 
cool after the terrible sultry heat of the day. Birds of 
certain species were singing as freely as in June. Thus 
I heard several Robins, a Wood Thrush, two Cat Birds, 
three Oven Birds (all gave the flight song) a Mniotilta 
(midsummer warble), a Black-throated Green Warbler, three 
Towhees, two Indigo Birds, several Song Sparrows, two 
Grass Finches, a Field Sparrow, three Chippies, a Maryland 
Yellow-throat, a Quail and (after twilight set in) a 
Whippoorwill. This is about the height of the firefly 
season. They light the meadows these warm evenings with a 
myriad dancing fairy torches. 
J 
