SWIFTS 
231 
Distribution. — Breeds in eastern North America from northern Mani¬ 
toba and Labrador southward, west to the Great Plains ; migrates beyond 
the United States as far as Yucatan and Jalapa, Mexico. 
Nest. — A wall pocket of twigs, glued together with saliva and fas¬ 
tened to inside of hollow tree or chimney. Eggs: 4 to 6, white. 
Food. — Insects. 
The eastern chimney swifts are said to be common in western 
Kansas. “They are dark little birds who row through the air like 
racers, twittering sociably as they go. Sometimes as you watch 
them on a village street you will see them suddenly stop short and 
pitch down the black mouth of a chimney, for it is now only the 
most old-fashioned ones who nest in hollow trees. . . . There is 
actually no record of their alighting anywhere except in a hollow 
tree or a chimney. They even gather their nesting materials on the 
wing, breaking off bits of twig in their feet, and it is said with their 
bills, literally, in passing. ... It would be quite impossible for an 
ordinary bird to fasten a wall-pocket of twigs to a perpendicular 
chimney, but the swift is provided with a salivary glue that defies 
anything but heavy rain.” (Birds of Village and Field.) 
424. Chaetura vauxii (Towns.). Vaux Swift. 
Upper parts sooty brown, lighter on rump and tail; tail tipped with 
spines; under parts gray, lighter on throat. 
Length: 4.15-4.50, wing 4.30-4.75, tail (includ¬ 
ing spines) 1.50-1.90. 
Distribution. — Pacific coast region fi*om Brit¬ 
ish Columbia south to Lower California, and 
east to western Montana and Arizona — rare and sporadic east of the Cas¬ 
cades and Sierra Nevada; migrates to Mexico and Central America. 
Nest. —Of small twigs glued together and fastened to the inside of a 
hollow tree. Eggs: 3 to 5, white. 
Food. — Aerial insects. 
Major Bendire says that the Vaux swift usually reaches the United 
States on its way back from Central America about the middle of 
April, and leaves in October. It migrates in flocks of from fifty to 
a hundred, but when at home generally hunts in small flocks of 
fifteen or twenty. Mr. Anthony once found a pair nesting in a large 
stub, and says that in going to the nest they would ‘ circle about 
fully two hundred feet above the stub, until directly over the open¬ 
ing ; then, darting down like a flash, would disappear with a sharp 
twitter.’ 
Mr. Littlejohn, of Redwood, California, has found a pair of swifts 
nesting in a chimney, and it will be interesting for observers to 
watch the birds to see how soon they acquire the habits of the more 
civilized swifts. 
Fig. 297. 
