The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1902-07-18
ATTEND CHURCH EVERY DAY.
Owosso Residents That do so-sut
They are Chimney Swifts and Not
Peopje

There are several communities within
the city that attend church every day.
They are composed of several hundreds
of the genus whose full name is Cypse-
lus Acutus through their equally cor
rect, commoner, and even prettier name
is the American swift, chimney swift,
or just simply swift. They are not
really swallows although they are sup
posed by some naturalists to belong to
| the same family This even is disputed
however by others who say that they
more properly belong to the family of
humming birds than to any other.
Their own proper name, swifts, is how
ever a very appropriate one for there
are not many birds that are swifter on
wing than they. The large stacks of the
Baptist and Methodist churches seem
the favorite places for the Owosso
colonies and the birds are to be seen by
the hundreds in the evening flying
around in great irregular ring whose
circumference touches the upper end of
the stacks. Some are always flying
past. Others are always shooting like
bullets down into the big fues and
others fiuttering out join the rapidly
moving circle and keep up its numbers
until the evening wears away and more
and more go down into the black depths
to stay until daybreak calls them out
again to the upper air.
The birds themselves, if they could be
seen close at hand, would be found to be
about five inches long with a modest
plumage of deep brown and black with
greenish luster about the head and neck,
having very long wings which when
folded extended considerably beyond the
tip of tail. The tail, however, is the
most peculiar thing about the swift, for
every feather terminates in sharp
horny spike about half inch long.
These little spikes are used by the swifts
in bracing against the chimney walls
while supporting themselves otherwise
by clinging on with their sharp claws,
just as woodpeckers sit against the
sides of trees.
In the chimney (they never occupy
those in use) they build their rude nests
and hatch their young, hundreds of
them together. For their nests they
use sticks fastened together and to the
sides of the chimney by means Of
strong glue or gum supplied by glands
in their heads mixed with their saliva.
In damp weather in June, such as we
have had this season, this glue often
weakens from absorption of moisture,
and the nests fall in heap at the
bottom of the chimney, the young per-
ishing The nests are shallow and |
wholly without the soft lining which
most birds supply. They produce two |
broods of young each season, and feed
them at times during the night with in
sects gathered during the day. 1t is
the nest Of species of swift from which |
the Chinese make their birdsnest pud-
ding, in that case the nest being COM
posed wholly of the glutinous substance
from glands in the swift's head.
They are truly birds of the air, for
they never alight on tree, fence, or
building; but drop into the top of some
chimney and cling to its
rough sides with their tiny feet The
swift does not even alight in a
tree to obtain the small twigs with |
which it builds its nest, but takes them
in passing on the wing. Their fight is
wonderful. 1t is rapid and graceful.
The bird appears to glide through the
air without effort except the opening
and shutting of the long, pointed wings.
Late in the warm summer afternoons a
fine view of their motions can be had as
they skim just over the tree tops, catch
ing tiny insects. At such times the
rapid change of directioncan be seen at
It's best, for they drop and mount as
they catch sight of the insects they
are pursuing In the heat of the mid
lay they are to be found high in the air,
where the insects are numerous. They
are constantly on the wing, never rest
ing from daylight till dark, which
means that just now they are flying
about fourteen hours out of
,wentyfour.
Before this country was settled these
birds built their nests and roasted in
hollow trees, but the wide open Chin
neys of the early settlers made better
nesting places, so they abandoned their
tree homes. Today, in the far west
where there are few houses, the birds
still use hollow trees. In the middle
west and in the east of this country
,himneys exclusively are used. Exactly
his same thing is noticed in the habits
If other birds. The common purple
martin, the bird which the farmer at
;racts with his martin house, uses boxes
in the east and central parts
If this country. In the unsettled parts
t uses the natural cavities in limbs of
rees.
j. d. Priest, Jr. turned up an ox-shoe
IN kba C1,;r,nop for,o Mast Main |