THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 119 



The Chimney Swallows, when performing r ,heir 

 migrations, often assemble to the number of several 

 thousands, and take possession of the trunk of some 

 venerable tree which has been hollowed out either 

 by fire or by natural decay. Here they will continue 

 to roost for many nights in succession before dis- 

 persing to the various parts of the country where 

 they are accustomed to breed. Audubon thus de- 

 scribes a rendezvous of this kind which was tenanted 

 by about 8000 or 9000 Swallows at one time : 



" Immediately after my arrival at Louisville in the 

 State of Kentucky, I became acquainted with the 

 late hospitable and amiable Major William Croghan 

 and his family. While talking one day about birds, 

 he asked me if I had seen the trees in which the 

 Swallows were supposed to spend the winter, but 

 which they only entered, he said, for the purpose of 

 roosting. Answering in the affirmative, I was in- 

 formed that on my way back to town, there was a 

 tree remarkable on account of the immense numbers 

 that resorted to it, and the place in which it stood 

 was described to me. I found it to be a sycamore, 

 nearly destitute of branches, sixty or seventy feet 

 hio-h, between seven and eight feet in diameter at 



O / < ' 



the base, and about five for the distance of forty feet 

 up, where the stump of a broken hollowed branch, 

 about two feet in diameter, made out from the main 



Night Hawks. The true place of the Swallows is not in the 

 present Chapter, but near the Tanagers, in Chapter IV. They 

 belong to the singing division (Oscines) of the order Pas- 

 seres. E. D C. 



