Barbour County index., 1904-08-10
THE CHIMNEY MARTIN
AN INTERESTING BIRD SPECIES
THAT Is VERY COMMON.
It's Nesting Place Is inside Chin
ney or a Hollow Tree-Great
Colonies Seen by Audu-
bon and Wilson.

From the roof of my house there
project several long brick chimneys.
one of which is never used in sum-
mer. In this chimney a pair Of Chin
ney swifts have made their home. as
they or other swiftS have done for
many years. Some time before the
nest-building began, three swifts ap
peared, flying back and forth above
the house and over the country round
about, twittering shrilly, and pursuing
one another without a pause, for
hours together. Now and then one
of them would wheel close above the
chimney and suddenly drop into it.
and sometimes one of it's companions
would follow. After a time, one of
the three disappeared, and the remain
ing two, apparently mated, began te
make themselves at home. Not faI
away, there is an old tree the top Of
which is covered with fine deae twigs
About this dead top the swifts would
fly, now and then Swooping at the
branches as though in pursuit of in
sects, and the branches themselves
had touched them. 1t was not for
insects, however, that these swoops
were made; the birds were simply
swapping off thin, dead twigs for use
in the construction of their nest in the
chimney. 1t was not long before the
nest began to take form; little black
cradle, it was made entirely of the
twigs, glued together by the saliva of
the birds. and the whole fastened to
the side of the chimney with the same
homemade glue, furnished by special
glands in the mouths of the birds. And
a few days later the nest contained
four small white eggs, and incubation
began.
The chimney swift is an excellent
example of bird which is able to
adapt himself to circumstances. and
to take advantage of new and favor
able conditions. Before there were
any chimneyed houses in this country,
the bird built it's best nest in the in
terror of some hollow tree. Gradually,
as houses began to grow up, and as
chimneys began to be available for
nesting purposes, those swifts which
happened to be in the vicinity of such
chimneys, finding them admirably
adapted to their needs, used them,
while the swifts which lived in the un-
settled parts of the country went on
using hollow trees as before. Chin
neyS are now so numerous. and are
| usually SO superior to hollow trees for
nesting purposes, that they have been
generally adopted by the whole spe-
cies, and to-day it would probably be
difficult matter to find chimney
swift's nest in hollow tree. In the
time of Audubon and Wilson, however,
this was not the case. and Audubon
himself saw many swifts still nesting
in trees in lower Kentucky, Indiana
and Illinois. The most popular trees
seemed to be those which were hol-
low from top to bottom. and having
a mere shell of trunk.
Perhaps because such trees were
| comparatively uncommon, it often
| happened that each one was the home
| of many pairs of swifts. In one such
| tree, giant sycamore, which Audu.
| bon had cut down.. he found about
| 80 nests, and there was also one
| nest in each of the hollow branches.
| After the breeding season, and before
| the birds moved south, they used
these trees as roosting places, and in
| the hollow of one tree examined by
| Audubon, he estimated that there
were 5000 swifts. He had a hole cut
in the base of the tree, and on going
to the spot at night, and looking up.
he saw the entire inside wall of the
tree covered with sleepings swifts
cllnglng with their sharp claws and
supported by their stiff tail feathers
| One morning he went to this tree
| very early, while it was still dark and
waited until the birds began to come
out. Suddenly, with noise which at
nrst caused him to think that the
| great tree was falling, the birds began
| to rise. and for about half an hour
they poured out of the top like 3
stream of black smoke. This same
sight may now be seen if one chooses
to rise early and visit some old fac
tory chimney which is used as a roost
| Ing place by the swifts
One of the popular errors concern
| ing the swift is the belief that it is
swallow, and it is called the chimney
swallow by nine-tenths of the people
AS matter of fact, however, it is not
even closely related to the swallows
being much more nearly akin to the
hummingbirds and the goatsuckers
Like birds of the latter class, swifts feed
on insects which they capture on the
wing. ERNEST HAROLD BAYNEs.
An Agreeable Remedy.
"YeS, my husband is greatly afflicted