. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. September, 1918] The Otiawa Naturalist 41 Generally the chimney swift builds in such in- accessible situations that it is not easy to observe iheir domestic arrangements. One year, however, an unusual chance was offered by a pair who fas- tened their bracket nest to the inside of a wire fire- guard on the hearth of an unoccupied and shuttered summer cottage at Marshall's Bay on Lac des Chats. I had no opportunity of observing the actual building, but the birds seem to have stuck a few twigs here and there on the wires before finally deciding th
. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. September, 1918] The Otiawa Naturalist 41 Generally the chimney swift builds in such in- accessible situations that it is not easy to observe iheir domestic arrangements. One year, however, an unusual chance was offered by a pair who fas- tened their bracket nest to the inside of a wire fire- guard on the hearth of an unoccupied and shuttered summer cottage at Marshall's Bay on Lac des Chats. I had no opportunity of observing the actual building, but the birds seem to have stuck a few twigs here and there on the wires before finally deciding that the right place for the nest was near the top of the guard and about the centre. The nest, which was a good typical example of chimney swift architecture, was finished about the 25th June, and the last of the four elongate white that the swiftlets were as much at ease in their crowded nest as the most cherished human babe in i*s cot. At any rate their appetites were not suffering, for they clamored incessantly for food with an incredible cry more ^ike the metallic rattle of a mechanism out of order than the voice of a living creature. This loud rasping noise is sometimes only too familiar to an unfortunate individual trying to sleep in a room, the chimney of which has been the fatal choice of a pair of swifts. The parents do not hunt all night as sometimes supposed, but as remarked by Mr. A. G. Kingston in the Ottarva Naturalist 25 years ago, they take turns at brooding the young, and the roar- mg of their wings in the chimney as they change places every half hour or so, added to the raucous ;'.if. and eggs of Chimney Swift: about natural size. eggs was laid on the 1st July. Authorities differ as to the incubation period of the chimney swift, somt giving 10 to 12 days, while others hold out for 18 days. In this case the young hatched in 16 days, for on the 17th July there were four naked and blind little ones in the nest. They grew at an astonishing rate. By
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