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Nov., I9O7 WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS AT CAPISTRANO ?7? While I sat watching the birds up in the sky suddenly down between the roof- less walls a swift came dashing toward me to turn with a loud call' and disappear up an earthquake crack at the end of a stone arch only a few yards away. The loud sibilant voices of clamorous young told what happened next. On coming out the old bird apparently discovered that she was watched, and it was some time be- fore she came again. When she did, she came silently but flew bravely straight to the nest. The cries of hungry young being fed just out of sight in wings of the chapel--sacristies--led to the discovery of three other nests or, strictly speaking, occupied earthquake cracks. The nest behind the end of the stone arch was the only one seen and this--as it was ten feet from the ground --only by climbing and peer- ? ? ?'?'? ing up the crack. The crack, ??,, ? ? , as seen in the photograph, was behind the capitol of the pilaster on which one end of ' ', 11 ? " the arch rested, the capitol having been jarred away from ' the wall by an earthquake-- doubtless that of 1812. About ten inches up this crack the nest could be seen tightly wedged in between walls less than two inches apart. As well as could be seen without destroying the nest, it was made of bark, feathers, grass, '? -" - and wool. The entrance to one of the other nests was a small square hole at the lower end of an ir- regular earthquake crack that 4 ? '. began at the top and ran down ' to about fifteen feet of the , ground, and was discovered by seeing the old bird fly swiftly across to the wall, linger a second before the hole and then disappear inside. ?lqTRAlqI? TO SWIFTS' lql?ST AT ?lql) OF ARCH 'I?he weaker voices of the {Marked by irele) young at this nest argued that they were not so old as those at the end of the arch. The two other nests were in chinks between stones of the cornice, about thirty feet from the ground. At one of these the white front of the old bird was strik- ingly in evidence as it squeezed out from the nest. The old swifts quickly got used to spectators and tho coming and going silently, darted by at close range. As they approached, the snowy whiteness of the throat and breast, apparently tapering to a V, held the eye, and as they went by, the white rump patches seemed almost as striking a mark. One of the high cornice birds once passed out with a downward swoop so close to my ear it seemed