BIRDS' NESTS AND CHIMNEYS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:'] Sin,—The writer of the interesting article on birds' nests in your last number says that the chimney swallow does not build in chimneys now. No, bow should he ? The reason must be sought in the evolution of the chimney, not in that of the swallow. Consider the modern chimney. Several narrow ones are bound together into a stack ; plenty of cement makes the whole thing into a neat rectangular parallelopipedon. Can swallows make nests on such a thing as that ? Now the ancient chimney— But I will not write of it—I should only blur some lovely picture which is rising already before the inward eye of the Spectator. Let us console ourselves by the reflection that less than a hundred years ago chimneys were still being swept by poor little climbing boys. The narrow flues have done away with that horror for evermore.-1 am, Sir, A. M. G.
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