Chimney Swift (Chaetura Pelagica) Swift Family
Called also: CHIMNEY SWALLOW; AMERICAN SWIFT

Length -- to 5.45 inches. About an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Long wings make its length appear greater. Male and Female -- Deep sooty gray; throat of a trifle lighter gray. Wings extend an inch and a half beyond the even tail, which has sharply pointed and very elastic quills, that serve as props. Feet are muscular, and have exceedingly sharp claws. Range -- Peculiar to North America east of the Rockies, and from Labrador to Panama. Migrations -- April. September or October. Common summer resident.

The chimney swift is, properly speaking, not a swallow at all, though chimney swallow is its more popular name. Rowing towards the roof of your house, as if it used first one wing, then the other, its flight, while swift and powerful, is stiff and mechanical, unlike the swallow's, and its entire aspect suggests a bat. The nighthawk and whippoorwill are its relatives, and it resembles them not a little, especially in its nocturnal habits.