Common swift that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. Their call is a loud scream in two different tone pitches, the higher of which issues from the female. They often form 'screaming parties' during summer evenings, when 10–20 swifts will gather in flight around their nesting area, calling out and being answered by nesting swifts. Larger "screaming parties" are formed at higher altitudes, especially late in the breeding season. The purpose of these parties is uncertain, but may include ascending to sleep on the wing, while still breeding adults tend to spend the night in the nest. Swifts may nest in former
Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka () is a collection of short stories by Nikolai Gogol, written in 1829–32. They appeared in various magazines and were published in book form when Gogol was twenty-two. The writer was born in the village of Velyki Sorochyntsi near Poltava, and he spent his life in Ukraine up to the age of nineteen. He put his early impressions and memories of childhood into these pictures of peasant life. In a series of letters to his mother, he asked her to write down descriptions of village customs, dress, superstitions,