Chimney swallow

“ In a small nook at the end he makes the nest.
"These swallows are but five inches long and feed on insects as do all swallows. They are found in [309] North America and migrate as far south as Brazil in winter.
"A bird sometimes called chimney swallow is also known by the name of chimney swift. It nests in the chimneys now, but in days when few white folks lived in America it lived in hollow trees or caves."
The girls sat with eyes intent on the Guide as she paused and Jane said, "Fine, Miss Miller, but you still have four more stories." ”

“ The Chimney Swallow is crepuscular, rather than nocturnal, in its habits, preferring to hunt for its insect prey in dull and cloudy weather, or in the early morning and the latter part of the afternoon. ”

“ The Chimney Swallow is, on the head, neck, back, and rump, of a shining black colour, with purple gloss and sometimes with a blue shade; the throat and neck are of the same colour; the breast and belly are white, with a dash of red. The tail is forked, and consists of twelve feathers.{241} The wings are of the same colour with the back. Swallows feed upon flies and other insects; and generally hunt their prey on the wing ”

“ It arrives early in May and remains until late August. The American Chimney Swallow is a Swift. The Purple Swallow, or Purple Martin is a North American species. The general color, both of the upper and under parts, is shining purplish blue; the wings and tail black. It is a universal favorite and is hailed as the harbinger [216] of spring. The Republican Swallow or Cliff-swallow of North America, makes a nest of mud, in form somewhat like a Florence flask, which it attaches to a rock or to the wall of a house. Hundreds sometimes build their nests in close proximity. ”

“ It is almost always on the wing. Its feet are so seldom used that they are very weak. The chimney swallow has a bristly tail, which assists in its support when the bird alights. Its color is a sooty gray. Of the true swallows none is more familiar than the barn swallow, whose nest adds a picturesque interest to the eaves of the building. This swallow has a steel blue coat, a pale chestnut vest, with a bit of chocolate on chin and throat. The tail is deeply forked. It is not a noisy bird, but has a song—a little trill—aside from the note it uses when flying. ”

“ Swallows kept in a cage moult about Christmas, and seldom live till spring.
There are several species of the Swallow: the general characters of which are a small beak, but large, wide mouth, for the purpose of swallowing flying insects, their natural food; and long forked tail and extensive wings, to enable them to pursue their prey. The common Swallow builds under the eaves of houses, or in chimneys, near their top; it is frequently called the Chimney Swallow from its preference for the last-mentioned rather singular situation ”

“ The chimney-swallow chooses a similar situation for its nest and uses the same building-materials, but the nest itself takes a different form. Instead of a hemispherical structure entered by a very small opening, it builds a cup-shaped nest, of no great depth and wide-open at the top.
Nest of a Swallow
“Swallows like to live together in large numbers, so that their nests are sometimes found touching one another in colonies of several hundreds under the same cornice. ”

“ The chimneys were three stories high, and the swallows built near the top, I suppose. They had the sky and the stars for a ceiling [Pg 169] to their dark little bedrooms. In spring there was never more than a blaze of sticks on the hearth—not that, unless we had visitors to stay. Sometimes a young swallow trying to fly fell out of the nest and fluttered across the hearth into the room. That was very exciting to us children. But at house-cleaning time a great bag of straw was stuffed up the chimney’s throat to save the hearth from falling soot and dried mud and the litter from the nests. ”

“ The beautiful violet-green swallow of the Rocky Mountains, Vaux Chimney Swift, on the Columbia, and the rough-winged swallow of Louisiana.
The barn-swallow resembles, in many respects, the European chimney-swallow; yet it is, in fact, a different variety—entirely American. Where the European bird is white, ours is bright chestnut. They are one of the most numerous birds we have; scarcely a barn in the country is without them; they seldom choose any other building for their home. ”

“ The chimney-swallow is usually the forerunner of the three house-swallows; and perhaps no fact in natural history has been so much studied as the migration of these tender birds. The commonest things are always the most interesting. In summer there is no bird so common everywhere as the swallow, and for that reason, many overlook it, though they rush to see a ‘white’ elephant. But the deepest thinkers have spent hours and hours in considering the problem of the swallow—its migrations, its flight, its habits ”

“ The swallow will not be driven away. He has not the slightest fear of man; he flies to his nest close to the window, under the low eave, or on the beams in the outhouses, no matter if you are looking on or not. Bold as the starlings are, they will seldom do this. But in the swallow, the instinct of suspicion is{387} reversed; an instinct of confidence occupies its place. In addition to the eave-swallow, to which I have chiefly alluded, and the chimney-swallow, there is the swift, also a roof-bird, and making its nest in the slates of houses in the midst of towns. ”

“ The barn swallow, as we would call it,—chimney swallow, as it is called there,—is much the same in voice, color, form, flight, etc., as our bird, while the swift is much larger than our chimney swallow and has a forked tail. The martlet, answering to our cliff swallow, is not so strong and ruddy looking a bird as our species, but it builds much the same, and has a similar note. It is more plentiful than our swallow. I was soon struck with the fact that in the main the British song-birds lead up to and culminate in two species, namely, in the lark and the nightingale. ”

“ As I craned my neck above the sooty vent, with the bees humming about my ears, the first thing my eye rested upon in the black interior was two long white pearls upon a little shelf of twigs, the nest of the chimney swallow, or swift,—honey, soot, and birds' eggs closely associated. The bees, though in an unused flue, soon found the gas of anthracite that hovered about the top of the chimney too much for them, and they left. But the swallows are not repelled by smoke. They seem to [69] have entirely abandoned their former nesting-places in hollow trees and stumps and to frequent only chimneys. ”

“ From May to September, is there a happier sight than a flock of chimney-swallows, just before or just after a shower, whizzing about the tops of the corn or coursing over the river, like so many streaks of black lightning, ridding the atmosphere of its overcharge of gnats! They cut across the rainbow and shoot into the rose- and pearl-washed sky, and drop—into the depths of a soot-clogged chimney!
These swallows used to build in caves and in clean, hollow trees; now they nest only in chimneys. So far have they advanced in civilization since the landing of the Pilgrims! ”

“ The Chimney Swallows are the second species, and they derive their name from building their nests in chimneys, which are not made use of in summer: sometimes when the fire is not very great, they do not mind the smoke, and remain in the chimney. ”

“ This bird, often called the bee-martin, is one of the fly-catchers, a very valuable family of birds, as they are wholly insectivorous, and do immense good by destroying our insect pests. The king bird is the only one of them in the United States that deserves censure. Another, the chimney swallow of Europe, has the same evil habit. Our chimney swallow has no evil ways. I am sure, from personal observation, that these birds capture and eat the workers, as well as drones; and I dare say, they would pay no more respect to the finest Italian Queen. ”

“ Yes, Tom, these nests, which are such a peculiar delicacy to Chinese palates, are all made by swallows, and there are, as far as I can trace them, four species which build nests of this sort. They belong to a division of the swallows which are sometimes called swifts, our common chimney-swallow of the United States being included among the swifts. Those which build the edible nests are found only on the islands of this Asiatic region, and mostly on the coasts of the islands, though sometimes they go forty or fifty miles inland. ”

“ A circumstance this, much more in favor of hiding than migration; since it is much more probable that a bird should retire to its hybernaculum just at hand, than return for a week or two to warmer latitudes.
The swallow, tho called the chimney-swallow, [159] by no means builds altogether in chimneys, but often within barns and outhouses against the rafters; and so she did in Virgil's time: "Garrula quam tignis nidos suspendat hirundo" (the twittering swallow hangs its nest from the beams) . ”

“ His nest is nearly all mud, but is lined with soft feathers. The eave swallows are the most expert masons of all. They build rows of mud tenements beneath the eaves of the barn. Each little apartment is rounded over and has a round hole for a door.
The chimney swift or swallow uses wood and glue in making the pretty little bracket-like basket he fastens to the chimney wall. His feet are so small that he cannot perch as other birds do, so when he rests he clings to the side of the chimney and leans on his tail. Each tail feather is tipped with a stiff, sharp point that keeps it from slipping. ”

“ This habit of building in chimneys must have been acquired in a comparatively short time, for there were no chimneys in this country before the arrival of the white man, and for a long time afterward the settler had but one chimney in his house, which must have been used, at least for cooking purposes, in the summer. So perfect is this habit that the swallow looks and acts as though he were made for the chimney; his color is a sooty black, so that he does not tarnish his coat by rubbing against the chimney walls ”

“ It is sometimes called Marble Rock, from the rounded sandstone pebbles on the ledge and in the river.
The Swallow's Home is where the swallows live. During the nesting season thousands of these birds may be seen occupying innumerable holes in the side of the cliff.
The Jaws of the Dells, the entrance proper, are guarded by High Rock and Romance Cliff, two immense rocks standing as sentinels to the waterway.
Chimney Rock is one of nature's freaks, resembling a stick and mortar chimney of pioneer times. It was fashioned by the waters as they cut this wonderful gorge. ”

“ The Swallow, Swift, and Martin, seem to have almost deserted London, although they are occasionally, though not very plentifully, to be seen in the suburbs. Two reasons may be assigned for this relative to the swallow; flies are not there so plentiful as in the open country; and most of the chimneys have conical or other contracted tops to them, which, if they do not preclude, are certainly no temptation to their building in such places; the top of a chimney being, as is well known, its favourite site for its nest. The Martin is also scarce in London. ”

“ There are more canaries in my block than chimney-swallows in all my sky.
The swallows are not urban birds. The gas, the smoke, the shrieking ventilators, and the ceaseless sullen roar of the city are hardly to their liking. Perhaps the flies and gnats which they feed upon cannot live in the air above the roofs. The swallows want a sleepy old town with big thunderful chimneys, where there are wide fields and a patch of quiet water.
Much more numerous than the swallows are the night-hawks. My roof, in fact, is the best place I have ever found to study their feeding habits. ”

“ Possibly, also, the younger generation of birds is finding that it is a good deal easier to go South by steam power than it is to get there by main strength. Why not? In a century or so chimney swallows have learned to build in chimneys rather than in caves and hollow trees. ”

“ The correct name of these birds whose home life was so rudely broken up is chimney swift. According to the bird books, they have been known to fly a thousand miles in a day, and they live in chimneys. Could any name fit them better? Chimney swifts are sometimes called swallows, probably because they resemble them somewhat, and twitter like swallows. But they are not swallows at all.
I thought if the birds could have their nest near them, it would seem more like home to them. It was a tiny nest, a bracket made of twigs which were woven together basket fashion and tightly glued. ”

“ He fastens his sharp claws into the rough bricks, and props himself firmly with his spiny tail. Even when the young swift is but two weeks old, he crawls out of the nest and hangs himself up under it. He seems to like that for a change from forever lying in a narrow bracket.
Chimney swifts are social birds. They can't bear to be alone. They are almost always seen flying about in small parties, and calling to each other as they go, a strange, chattering cry. They are of a sooty color suitable to their sooty home, and the pair are alike. ”

“ All summer you live gayly together; and, when winter comes, you fly away to the lovely South, unseparated still."
"Neighbors, do you hear what that lazy creature down there is saying?" cried a swallow, peeping over the edge of her nest, and addressing several others who sat on a beam near by.
"We hear, Mrs. Skim; and quite agree with you that he knows very little about us and our affairs," answered one of the swallows with a shrill chirp, like a scornful laugh. "We work harder than he does any day. Did he build his own house, I should like to know? Does he get his daily bread for himself? ”