The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-25
I,Envni
THE CHIMNEY MARTIN.

From the roof of my house there pro- ject several long brick chimneys, one of which is never used in summer. In this chimney a pair of chimney swifts have made their home, as they or other IsWifts have done for many years Some time before the building began, three swifts appeared, flying back and forth above the house and over tho 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 com Ipanions would follow. After time, one Iof the three disappeared, and the re- maining two. apparently mated, began to make themselves at home. Not far away, there is an old tree, the top of which is covered with fine dead twigs. About this dead top the swifts would fly, now and then sweeping at the branches as though in pursuit of insects land the branches themselves would tremble, showing that the birds had touched them. It was not for insects,
 however, that these swoops were made; the birds were simply snapping off thin, dead twiggs for use in the construction of their nest in the chimney. It 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 oe the birds, and the whole lfastened 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 eggs, and incuba- tion began.
 The chimney swift is an excellent ex- ample Of a bird which is able to adapt himself to circumstances, and to take advantage of new and favorable condi- tions. Before there were any chimney ed houses in this country, the bird built it's best nest in the interior of some hol- low 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 live 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 species, | +o dax nInaf f1xy ha o f1- cult matter to find chimney swifts S
 nest in hollow tree. In the time of
 Audubon and Wilson, however, this
 was not the case. and Audubon himself
 saw many swiets still nesting in trees
 in lower Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.
 The most popular trees seemed to be
 those which were hollow from top to
 bottom, and having mere shell of a
 trunk.
 Perhaps because such trees were
 comparatively uncommon, it often hap
 pened that each one was the home of
 many pairs of swifts. In one such tree,
 a giant sycamore, which Audubon had
 cut down, he found about thirty nests,
 and there was also one nest in each of
 the hollow branches. After the breed
 ing season, and before the birds moved
 south, they used these trees as roasting
 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 s1eepins swifts,
 cinging with their sharp claws and supported by their stiff tall feathers.
 One morning he went to this tree very
 early. while it was still dark, and wait
 ed until the birds began to come out.
 Suddenly, with a noise which at first
 caused him to think that the great tree