A CEMENT WORKER 
125 
ment workers whose nest is glued together 
stickleback style/’ said Auntie in her turn. “ It 
is that of the chimney-swift, or chimney-swallow, 
as it is often wrongly called. The chimney-swift 
is no kin at all of the swallow family which de¬ 
lights in stringing their adobe homes along under 
our eaves. It is a cousin of the nighthawk and 
the whippoorwill, and its name chimney-swift il¬ 
lustrates one of the few instances of real aptness 
in bird christening. The nests are commonly 
constructed in unused chimneys; hence the first 
part of the name. And swift is added in token 
of the birds’ wonderful powers of flight and en¬ 
durance. They have often been known to travel 
a thousand miles in a single night and day. 
Their flight is a peculiar rowing motion, not 
graceful, but very sure and powerful. The birds 
are sooty gray and about an inch shorter than 
the English sparrow, but their long wings ex¬ 
tending way beyond their funny spiked tail make 
them seem much larger. Their feet are strong 
and muscular with very sharp claws, and as they 
cling to the sides of the chimney they prop them¬ 
selves woodpecker-wise by their tails, suggesting 
that they might have been thrown like a pin-dart 
and stuck. 
“ Nearly the whole day is spent searching the 
air for flying insects. If no chimneys are to be 
had, the swifts will content themselves in a hollow 
