Swifts have often been called “Chimney Swallows,” but the name is a misnomer; they belong to an entirely different family. The breadth of wing and rapid flight, the weak feet and broad bills are, however, points of resemblance; the sooty appearance and lack of beautiful luster of plumage are points of difference. Then, too, swifts’ tails are less like swallows’ tails than they are like those of woodpeckers and creepers; the spiny tips are used as props against a perpendicular surface.

The following facts concerning swifts are taken from Eaton’s “Birds of New York”:

“Nearly every village or city [in New York State] can boast at least one large chimney or church or schoolhouse that harbors multitudes of swifts every night late in summer. It is an interesting sight to watch these swifts as they wheel about such a chimney in the August and September evenings and, when the magic moment arrives, pour down its capacious mouth in a living cascade. It seems impossible for this species to perch, but it always alights on some perpendicular surface like the inside of a large hollow tree or the inner surface of a chimney or the perpendicular boards at the gable end of a barn or shed. In this position it sleeps, clinging with its sharp claws to the irregular surface and using its spiny tail as a support. The swift is seen abroad early in the morning and late in the afternoon, but in cloudy weather comes out at any time of day and evidently can see well in the bright sunlight, for it frequently hunts material for its nest during the brightest weather. They begin to construct the nest in May or early June, the small twigs of which it is formed being broken from dead branches of some shade tree by the bird flying directly against the tip of the twig and snapping it off. The twigs are carried into the chimney and are cemented to the wall and to each other by a gelatinous substance secreted by the salivary glands of the bird itself. When completed, the nest is like a little semi-circular bracket slightly hollowed downward. The eggs are placed on this framework of twigs without lining.

“In food the swift is wholly insectivorous, and does an immense amount of good destroying beetles, flies, and gnats, which he devours in countless multitudes. The chimney swift, as he darts by, frequently utters a rapid chipper something like the syllable chip, chip, chip, rapidly repeated, and I have heard a loud cheeping in the chimney, evidently uttered by the young birds. One of the earliest impressions of my boyhood was the curious roaring caused by the wings of parent swifts as they came and went from their nests at daybreak. This unfortunate habit of early rising has brought the chimney swift into bad repute in many civilized communities, ... closing chimneys against this beneficial bird.”

In Major Charles Bendire’s “Life Histories of American Birds” occur the following statements from Mr. Otto Widman regarding the nests and young of chimney swifts: “The setting parent shields the structure by habitually covering its base with the breast and pressing its head against the wall above. When disturbed, it hides below the nest, as do the young birds. They make a hissing noise, and always remain 2 or 3 feet below the mouth of the chimney [shaft], where they are fed by the parents until they are four weeks old.