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
Ancient Evenings 150 years before the night of the narrative; the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BCE) is in turn the central event of this sub-narrative. The novel had an extremely mixed critical reception marked by a preponderance of negative reviews, with the notable exception of celebrated literary critic Harold Bloom, who praised the work in the "New York Review of Books" and listed it in the fourth appendix for "" (1994). William S. Burroughs acknowledged "Norman Mailer and his "Ancient Evenings", for inspiration" in his 1987 novel "The Western Lands". Citations Bibliography Ancient Evenings Ancient Evenings is a novel by American author