Archives of natural history 31 (2): 300?307. 2004   ? G. R. Graves 2004.
Avian commensals in Colonial America: when did 
Chaetura pelagica become the chimney swift?
GARY R. GRAVES
Department of Zoology, MRC-116, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 
37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012 USA.
ABSTRACT: The clearing of primeval forest in eastern North America by European colonists led to a 
profound shift in the breeding ecology of the chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica). Historical accounts 
show that the swift, which nested in hollow trees during the pre-Colonial era, began nesting in chimneys 
as early as 1672 in New England, indicating that it was among the fi rst native North American birds to 
nest commensally in European dwellings. Based on historical descriptions of nest sites and on changes 
in its vernacular name, the swift nested almost exclusively in chimneys on the Atlantic coastal plain by 
the late eighteenth century. Tree-nesting is now a rare phenomenon and fewer than two dozen instances 
of such behavior have been reported since 1900.
KEY WORDS: Mark Catesby ? John Josselyn ? New Englands rarities discovered ? Thomas Pennant.
INTRODUCTION
American Indians had a signifi cant impact on the forested habitats of eastern North America 
through burning and agricultural clearing (Swanton, 1922; Day, 1953; Russell, 1983), but 
the greatest landscape changes since the end of the last interglacial were precipitated by the 
arrival of European colonists who cleared millions of acres of primeval forest (Bidwell and 
Falconer, 1925). Although the probable impact of forest fragmentation on birds has been 
chronicled in some detail (see for example Terborgh, 1989; Askins et alii, 1990; Faaborg, 
2002), the behavioral response of na?ve avian populations to the fi rst wave of European 
colonization, particularly of species that have adapted successfully to urbanization, has not 
been rigorously explored. 
Few native birds of the Western Hemisphere have adapted their breeding ecologies to the 
edifi ce of European civilization as successfully as has the chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica). 
The swift nested in hollow trees, or perhaps in caves, in most of eastern North America south 
of the boreal forest in pre-Colonial America (Wilson, 1812; Tyler, 1940; Cink and Collins, 
2002). Today, it nests almost exclusively in man-made structures such as chimneys, wells, 
silos, interiors of abandoned cabins and houses, porches and barns (Amadon, 1936; Tyler, 
1940; Dexter, 1952; Fischer, 1958). Invariably placed in a shaded site, well protected from 
the elements, the swift?s nest is constructed of small twigs cemented together with saliva 
from seasonally enlarged sublingual glands (Johnston, 1958; Barnawell, 1968). The shift 
to man-made structures has been so extensive that reports of swifts nesting in natural sites 
are now regarded as noteworthy events. A review of the literature revealed that fewer than 
two dozen instances of tree-nesting have been reported since 1900 (Cottrille, 1956; Kelsey, 
1964; Blodgett and Zammuto, 1979; Tumer et alii, 1984; Ferguson and Ferguson, 1991), and 
most of these accounts were inadequately documented (for example Walker, 1939; Barbour 
and Gault, 1952; Hofslund, 1958; Ganier, 1962; Mengel, 1966; Sutton, 1967; Rising et alii, 
1977; Nicholson, 1984, 1997; Bull, 1985; Sutcliffe, 1994; Stevenson and Anderson, 1994). 
 301CHAETURA PELAGICA: CHIMNEY SWIFT
In any event, the paucity of tree-nesting records during the twentieth century suggests that 
the shift to man-made structures occurred in the nineteenth century or earlier. The objective 
of this paper is to determine from historical accounts when this swift began its commensal 
relationship with Europeans in North America. 
HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS
Avian descriptions in Colonial-era literature, especially of songbirds, were often cursory and 
diffi cult to assign to a particular species. Swifts (Apodidae) and swallows (Hirundinidae) 
were believed to be closely related owing to their superfi cial similarity and convergent 
feeding ecology, until Sundevall (1836) classifi ed them in different families.1 Adding to the 
ambiguity of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century accounts, some English common names were 
occasionally applied to both the swift and the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), a Holarctic 
species that also built its nest in Colonial buildings. Common names were accompanied by 
scientifi c names in most early sources, but several pre-1750 accounts used only common 
names. In those cases, the true identity of the bird may be determined from textual clues. 
This paper focuses on historical descriptions of nest sites and on the English common name 
of the swift under the assumption that perceived changes in the swift?s association with 
human dwellings were tracked by changes in its vernacular name. 
The fi rst recognizable description of the swift in natural history literature appeared in 
John Josselyn?s New Englands rarities discovered (1672: 8):
The Troculus, a small Bird, black and white, no bigger than a Swallow, the points of whose Feathers are 
sharp, which they stick into the sides of the Chymney (to rest themselves, their Legs being exceeding short) 
where they breed in Nests made like a Swallows Nest, but a glewy substance, and which is not fastened to 
the Chymney as Swallows Nest, but hangs down the Chymney by a clew-like [sic. ? glew-like] string a yard 
long. They commonly have four or fi ve young ones, and when they go away, which is much about the time 
that Swallows use to depart, they never fail to throw down one of their young birds into the room by way 
of Gratitude. I have more than once observed, that against the ruin of the Family, these Birds will suddenly 
forsake the house and come no more. 
Several details in Josselyn?s passage indicate that Troculus referred to the swift, rather than 
the barn swallow. Although his description of the nest was fanciful, the ?glewy substance? 
can only allude to the saliva cement of the swift?s nest. Similarly, the sharp feathers refer 
to the spine-tipped tail feathers of Chaetura swifts. Finally, young swifts frequently tumble 
into chimney hearths if their nests are washed down by rain and when the young fl edge. 
Lawson (1709:145) listed the ?Swift, or Diveling? among the birds inhabiting the 
Carolinas. Brickell (1737: 197), who paraphrased or copied directly from many of Lawson?s 
species accounts, noted in The natural history of North Carolina:
The Swift, or Diveling, has a great Head and Wide Mouth, but a small Bill. The colour of the Feathers of the 
whole Body is black, only under the Chin, is a Spot of white or Ash-colour; the Legs are short, but thick, and 
the Feet small. These Birds feed as the Swallows do, and have much the same Virtues.
Although Lawson and Brickell noted the nesting habits of some other species, most 
notably the purple martin (Progne subis) which nested in hollow gourds tied atop tall poles 
on plantations, neither author mentioned the nesting of swifts or swallows in chimneys or 
other man-made structures. 
The fi rst known illustration of the swift appeared in Mark Catesby?s (1748) The natural 
302 CHAETURA PELAGICA: CHIMNEY SWIFT
history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama islands (Figure 1) which depicted the ?American 
swallow? incubating two eggs on a twig nest built inside a brick chimney2:
[The American swallow] is a little less than the English House-Swallow3, but very like it in shape. It is all over 
of a brown color, except that the under part of the body and tail is of a lighter brown; particularly the throat 
is almost white. The Cock has some feathers faintly stained with purple, except which he differs not in color 
from the Hen. The singularity of this Bird is, that the shafts of the tail feathers are very stiff, sharp-pointed 
and bare of feathers at their ends, which seem designated by Nature for the support of their bodies, while 
they are in an erect posture building their nests, which they do in chimneys, with little sticks interwoven and 
cemented together with a kind of glue or gum.
Nearly three decades later, Forster (1771a) erroneously cataloged two species of swift in 
North America ? the ?swift? and ?aculeated swallow,? based on Lawson (1709) and Catesby 
(1748), respectively. Both names refer to the same species, as Chaetura pelagica was the 
only swift known to science in the Americas north of Mexico and the Caribbean during the 
eighteenth century (Wilson, 1812; Ridgway, 1911). Thomas Pennant (1785: 432) perpetuated 
Forster?s error by presenting accounts for two species of swift (italics in original):
[Swift] With a very small bill: white chin: all the plumage besides dusky: all the toes standing forward. 
According to Mr. Lawson, inhabits Carolina. Found in vast abundance beyond lake Baikal, on the loftiest 
rocks; chiefl y about the river Onon, where a variety with a white rump is very common. Extends in Europe 
as high as Drontheim.4
[Aculeated swallow (Figure 2)] With the bill short, broad, and black: head, upper part of the neck, and wings, 
dusky: breast cinereous: back, tail, and belly brown: tail even at the end; extremities of each shaft naked and 
sharp-pointed: wings extend far beyond the tail: legs longer than common to this tribe, and naked a little 
below the knee. Length fi ve inches and a half. Inhabits many parts of North America. Arrives in New York and 
Pensylvania in May; sometimes early, sometimes late in the month. Builds in chimnies, forming a most curious 
nest, with bits of small sticks, cemented by peach-tree gum. It is open at top, and forms about a third of a 
circle. Lays four or fi ve eggs in June, and quits the country in August. They often stick close to the chimney-
wall by their feet, and support themselves by applying their sharp tail to the sides. They make all day a great 
thundering noise, by fl ying up and down the funnel.5
The common name fi rst refl ected the swift?s association with European dwellings when 
Kalm (1761) referred to the ?Korstens-Swalor? (chimney swallow) in the Swedish text of En 
Figure 1. Detail from the earliest known illustration 
of the chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica) by Catesby 
(1748: Appendix, plate 8). Reproduced courtesy of 
the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, 
Smithsonian Institution Libraries. 
Figure 2. Detail from Pennant?s (1785: plate 18) illustration of 
the chimney swift on a nest built on brickwork. Reproduced 
courtesy of the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural 
History, Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
 303CHAETURA PELAGICA: CHIMNEY SWIFT
Resa til North America. Forster?s (1771b) translation of Kalm?s text included the following 
passage:
The chimney swallows ... derive their name from building their nests in chimneys which are not used in summer. 
... It is remarkable that each feather in their tail ends in a stiff sharp point, like the end of an awl; they apply 
the tail ends to the side of the wall in the chimneys, hold themselves with feet, and the stiff tail serves to keep 
them up. They cause a great thundering noise all day long by fl ying up and down in the chimneys; and as they 
build their nests in chimneys only, and it is well known that the Indians have not so much as a hearth made 
of masonry, much less a chimney, but make their fi res on the ground in their huts, it is a natural question to 
ask: where did the swallows build their nests before the Europeans came and made houses with chimneys? It 
is probably that they formerly made them in great hollow trees.6
Several English common names were applied to the swift in the period between Forster?s 
(1771b) translation of Kalm and the publication of Wilson?s American ornithology (1812). It 
is unclear whether Belknap (1792) arrived independently at ?chimney swallow? for the swift 
in New Hampshire or if he was infl uenced by Kalm?s account via Forster (1771b). In the 
same year, Bartram (1792: 290) introduced a confused nomenclature that assigned ?house 
swallow? to Hirundo pelasgia cauda aculeata, a Latin name that combined elements of two 
names previously erected for the swift ? Hirundo pelasgia7 (Linnaeus, 1766) and Hirundo 
cauda aculeata americana (Catesby, 1748). He compounded the problem by specifying 
?chimney swallow? as the common name for a second species, Hirundo cerdo. Bartram 
probably intended Hirundo pelasgia cauda aculeata to represent the barn swallow (Wilson, 
1812), and Barton (1799) stated that Hirundo cerdo pertained to the swift. Coues (1875) 
later concluded that both of Bartram?s names referred to the swift. 
Williams?s (1794: 114?115) similarly muddled description of the ?house swallow? 
combined the morphological characteristics of the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) with 
nesting characters of both the swift and cliff swallow (Hirundo pyrrhonota):
The house swallow. This may be readily distinguished from rest, by the greater forkedness of its tail. It has 
also a red spot upon its forehead; and under its chin. This species build their nests in chimneys. Their nests 
are made of small sticks, cemented together, with a kind of gum, and mud; they are covered or arched over 
the tops, and the aperture is on one side.
It is probable that Williams?s ?house swallow? referred to the swift because of the reference 
to stick nests inside chimneys.8 This seems to be confi rmed later in the passage (Williams, 
1794: 116) when he wrote ?The species called the house or chimney swallow has been found 
during the winter in hollow trees.? Notwithstanding his erroneous belief that swifts hibernated 
in trees, it appears that ?house swallow? and ?chimney swallow? were used interchangeably 
for the swift in New England during the 1790s. Two other contemporary accounts of the swift 
were brief but straightforward. Thomas Jefferson (1794) called it the ?American swallow,? 
whereas Barton (1799) listed it as the ?aculeated swallow? or ?chimney-bird.? 
Wilson (1812) wrote the most comprehensive and biologically accurate narrative of the 
swift until Fischer?s study (1958). An excerpt from Wilson?s account (1812: 48) summarizes 
the swift?s nesting habits at the beginning of the nineteenth century:
[The chimney swallow] like all the rest of its tribe in the United States, is migratory, arriving in Pennsylvania 
late in April or early in May, and dispersing themselves over the whole country wherever there are vacant 
chimneys in summer suffi ciently high and convenient for their accommodation. In no other situation with us 
are they observed at present to build. This circumstance naturally suggests the query, Where did these birds 
construct their nests before the arrival of Europeans in this country, when there were no such places for their 
accommodation? I would answer probably in the same situations in which they still continue to build in the 
remote regions of our western forests, where European improvements of this kind are scarcely to be found, 
304 CHAETURA PELAGICA: CHIMNEY SWIFT
namely in the hollow of a tree, which in some cases has the nearest resemblance to their present choice of 
any other.
Wilson?s infl uential American ornithology (1812) marked a watershed in the evolution of 
the swift?s English common name. With few exceptions, the ?chimney? appellation has 
been used since then. Audubon (1839) listed three common names for the swift (American 
spine-tail, chimney swallow, and American swift) and Baird (1845) called it the ?chimney 
bird.? However, ?chimney swallow? was the only name cited in most references until the 
late 1870s (James, 1823; Bonaparte, 1828; Peabody, 1839; Linsley, 1843; Baird, 1860; Baird 
et alii, 1874). ?Chimney swift,? the common name used today, was introduced by Nuttall 
(1840) but was not widely adopted until it was published in The code of nomenclature and 
check-list of North American birds (American Ornithologists? Union, 1886).
DISCUSSION
When Josselyn was writing, European settlements in New England were largely limited to the 
Atlantic coastal plain and the Connecticut River valley (Friis, 1940). Although natural nest 
sites were undoubtedly available in the vast expanses of primeval forest in outlying areas, 
Josselyn?s narrative (1672) suggests that the swift was already a commensal inhabitant of 
cabins and houses only fi ve decades after the Plymouth settlement. This raises the rhetorical 
question fi rst posed by Kalm (Forster, 1771b) and later by Wilson (1812): where did the 
swifts build their nests before the arrival of Europeans in North America? The answer was 
well known to both naturalists but the question serves as an indicator of how unusual tree-
nesting was in settled areas of eastern North America at the end of the eighteenth century. 
By the 1790s, historical descriptions of nest sites and changes in the English common name 
suggest that on the Atlantic coastal plain the swift nested almost exclusively in chimneys. In 
an era when homes were heated with wood in open-hearth fi replaces, swifts opportunistically 
built nests in chimneys that were unused during the summer months (Wilson, 1812). Stone 
or brick chimneys provide nesting sites that, in many cases, were probably superior to 
those available in natural cavities and hollowed trees. In particular, the rough surfaces of 
brick, stone and mortar afford an ideal substrate for the attachment of twig nests. Chimneys 
may also provide a greater degree of protection from predators and inclement weather than 
hollow trees. 
Did the swift nest commensally in American Indian dwellings before the arrival of 
Europeans? The size and stature of some Indian dwellings, particularly Iroquoian longhouses 
(Tuck, 1971; Ritchie and Funk, 1973) and the ceremonial buildings constructed atop temple 
mounds in the Mississippi Valley (Le Page du Pratz, 1758), rivalled those of barns, churches 
and houses built by seventeenth-century European colonists. Although supporting references 
have not come to light, one may speculate that the darkened recesses of large and less-
frequented structures (for example, ossuaries, temples and storehouses) may have provided 
suitable conditions for nesting, particularly given the variation in nest-site selection exhibited 
by present-day populations of Chaetura pelagica (Tyler, 1940; Dexter, 1952; Fischer, 1958; 
Cink and Collins, 2002).
In summary, historical references indicate that the chimney swift was among the fi rst 
native North American birds to nest commensally in European dwellings. The conversion 
from hollow trees to chimneys appears to have occurred rapidly in settled areas and several 
 305CHAETURA PELAGICA: CHIMNEY SWIFT
authors noted that chimney swifts were common to abundant in the vicinity of settlements 
and cities in the early nineteenth century (Wilson, 1812; Audubon, 1839). 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
I thank Kirsten van den Veen (Dibner Library for the History of Science and Technology, Smithsonian Institution 
Libraries), Dale Miller (Smithsonian Institution Libraries), Margaret Dittemore (Anthropology Library, Smithsonian 
Institution Libraries) and especially Daria Wingreen and Leslie K. Overstreet (both of the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd 
Library of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Libraries) for assistance with Colonial era literature. James 
D. Rising graciously sent a copy of a hard-to-fi nd reference. I thank Charles T. Collins and Storrs L. Olson for 
insightful comments on the manuscript, Richard C. Banks and Richard L. Zusi for discussions on swift biology, 
and J. Daniel Rogers for stimulating conversations on American Indian architecture.
NOTES
1
 A complete synonymy of the swift?s scientifi c name since Linnaeus (1758) is found in Ridgway (1911). 
2
 Catesby?s name, Hirundo cauda aculeata Americana, was the probable stimulus for Forster?s (1771a) ?aculeated 
swallow?, referring to the spiny tips of the swift?s rectrices. 
3
 Probably the common swift (Apus apus).
4
 Pennant apparently confused Chaetura pelagica, which is restricted to the Western Hemisphere, with the common 
swift (Apus apus) in Europe and the Pacifi c swift (Apus pacifi cus) in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia. 
5
 Pennant?s biologically accurate illustration (see Figure 2, this paper) of the ?aculeated swallow? depicts Chaetura 
pelagica perched on a twig nest built on brickwork. 
6
 Kalm?s account (translated from the Swedish by Forster (1771b)) of the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) indicated 
that it nested in man-made structures when available: 
The barn swallows, or, as some Swedes called them, house swallows, are those with a furcated tail. ... They 
build their nests in houses and under the roofs on the outside; I likewise found their nests built on the lower 
side of overhanging rocks. They build, too, under the edges of perpendicular rocks; and this shows where the 
swallow made their nests before the European settled and built houses here; for it is well known that the huts 
of the Indians could not serve the purpose of the swallows.
7
 Linnaeus (1758) based his description of Hirundo pelagica on Catesby?s (1743) ?Hirundo cauda aculeata 
americana?. He changed the specifi c epithet to pelasgia (Linnaeus, 1766) but it later reverted to the original 
spelling (Baird et alii, 1874). 
8
 Williams (1794: 115) also described a ?barn swallow? (= Hirundo rustica) whose nest was found ?in barns 
and out houses; and they are formed of grass, straw, and feathers. Their eggs are speckled, of a dark brown and 
white. It is called the barn swallow from the place in which it generally builds its nest.? In contrast, the eggs of 
the swift (Chaetura pelagica) are white and unspotted. 
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 Received: 31 October 2003. Accepted: 13 March 2004.