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was the rmle and the silent sitter the female. which doubtless the case. —i\ll.uu' NIAXN Mu.r.Eit.
w as
Nesting Habits of (he cnimnsy Swilt
Although having often read of the Chim- nei» Swift nes ng in hollow trees. and the usual nothing has ever come to my notice. in literature, stating that they nest in other places.
In this locality. tnore nests are built inside buildings than there are inside chim- neys. The nests are usually glued to the gable end of the building—sometimes barns, old uninhabited chosen~and one nest, the past summer, was built in a blacksmith shop within fifteen feet of the forge. A number of years ago a pair nested in the upper part of a house in which a family lived. and near to a bed in uhich children slept every night. In this case the birds entered through a broken window.
0n only two occasions has the writer observed the Swifts collecting their nest material. They chose the dead twigs from the tops of trees, on one occasion a white maple. another time from a hemlock. As the birds flew slowly along. they would seize a twig in their bill and were generally successiul in breaking it away. When the twig was not broken oil‘. the bird would fly but a short distance and return and try another.
Sometimes the egg~laying begins before the nest is completed. The eggs are laid usually in the morning. one being laid each day until the set is completed, the number being five.
When the last egg is laid incubation ht. gins. twenty-two days being required before the young are hatched.
Should the tirst set of eggs be taken, and the birds not frightened, they will again have eggs, in the same nest. in two weeks‘ time.
Whether both birds incubate I do not know. as the sexes are so nearly alike in plumage.
About three weeks are required for the
place betng in unused chimneys.
sometimes houses are
Bird- Lore
young to get a suflicient growth of wing- feathers to be able to fly. During this time they are fed by both birds, at any time. day or night.
A chimney would appear to be a very safe place for a pair of birds to raise a brood to be free from enemies. Yet there is one enemy they are unable to cope with —that is rain. A heavy rain, when the young are about half grown. loosens the glued sticks from the sooty chimney. and young and nest fall to the bottom of the shaftI where the young soon perish of hun« get. as the old birds do not seem to feed them after the fall.
In such cases the young are often taken by the people of the house. placed in a small basket or box. lowered a short dis- tance into the chimney from the top, where they are fed and cared for as if nothing had happened—w. H. Moose. Sta/[ll Lake. N. B.
Destruction at Birds by Lighming
In connection with Dr. Morton’s account of the destruction of birds by a hail»storm, at Minneapolis. in August. rgor. published in this issue of BIRD»LORE. the following report from he ‘N. Y. Sun’ of the effect on Sparrows of a severe storm which oc- curred in New York city on the evening of July 23. is of interest: "More than a thousand Sparrows were killed by the storm at the corner of Hudson and Third streets, Hoboken. Two large shade trees in front of the Beachwood apartment house were struck by lig'ttning shortly after the storm began} and a moment afterward the lawn in front of the house was a carpet of feathers. Most of the birds were killed outright, but there were several hundred that be- gan to hop about their dead mates and chirp,"
Cats and Bells.
A correspondent recommends the placing of bells on cats to prevent them from catch- ing birds. and states that the plan has been tried with success.
