fireplace. On capturing it I
saw that its throat was distended with food as a chipmunk's cheek with
corn, or a boy's pocket with chestnuts. I opened its mandibles, when it
ejected a wad of insects as large as a bean. Most of them were much
macerated, but there were two house-flies yet alive and but little the
worse for their close confinement. They stretched themselves and walked
about upon my hand, enjoying a breath of fresh air once more. It was
nearly two hours before the swift again ventured into the chimney with
food.

These birds do not perch, nor alight upon buildings or the ground. They
are apparently upon the wing all day. They outride the storms. I have in
my mind a cheering picture of three of them I saw facing a heavy
thunder-shower one afternoon. The wind was blowing a gale, the clouds
were rolling in black, portentous billows out of the west, the peals of
thunder were shaking the heavens, and the big drops were just beginning
to come down, when, on looking up, I saw three swifts high in air,
working their way slowly, straight into the teeth of the storm. They
were not hurried or disturbed; they held themselves firmly and steadily;
indeed, they were fairly at anchor in the air till the rage of the
elements should have subsided. I do not know that any other of our land
birds outride the storms in this way.

In the choice of nesting-material the swift shows no change of habit.
She still snips off the small dry twigs from the tree-tops and glues
them together, and to the side of the chimney, with her own glue. The
soot is a new obstacle in her way, that she does not yet seem to have
learned to overcome, as the rains often loosen it and cause her nest to
fall to the bottom. She has a pretty way of trying to frighten you off
when your head suddenly darkens the opening above her. At such times she
leaves the nest and clings to the side of the chimney near it. Then,
slowly raising her wings, she suddenly springs out from the wall and
back again, making as loud a drumming with them in the passage as she is
capable of. If this does not frighten you away, she repeats it three or
four times. If your face still hovers above her, she remains quiet and
watches you.

What a creature of the air this bird is, never touching the ground, so
far as I know, and never tasting earthly food! The swallow does perch
now and then and descend to the ground for nesting-material, but not so
the swift. The twigs for her nest she gathe