and inuoh of the time cloudy. 0n(th^l3tb and 14tb, clear , , 
bot days* the Swifts left the chimney soon after daybreak 
and did not once return to It until lenrly d rk. On the 
evening of the 13tb, one of them came in at 7,40, the other 
at 7,^; on that of the 14th they returned practically 
together at 7,50, 
Their manner of entering and leaving the chimney 
varied, nonetlmes the bird ’vTould descend to the nest or 
ascend from it by one continuous flight, during which it 
kept its body ne rly horizontal and retarded the downward 
or accomplished the upward movement by rapidly beating its 
fully extended wings, the tips of which ne-.'rly touched the 
opposite sides of the narrow flue. Hot infrequently, how¬ 
ever, It would first alight Just inside the mouth of the 
chimney and,after clinging there for a moment,begin 
descending by a succession of short flights vdiile the ascent 
was often performed in the same manner, Durlai^ some of the 
rhort flights the bird used not only its wings but its 
feet, running, as it were, either up or down the vertical 
surface, vdthln fo t-reach of which it maintained its body 
by Cuust rotly vibrating its wings, 
of 
Every such movement of the vgrings, whether/long or 
short o4atlauance, was accompanied by the hollow (or rather 
muffled) rumbling sound which one always hears so fre juently 
in summer in chimneys where Hwifts are breeding. From some 
observations \ishich I made when we were passing the summer 
of 1892 ii the Tolraan cottage in Co cord^ I concluded 
