240 NOTES ON THE 



maries with a white blotch midwaj' between the tip and carpal 

 joint, not extending on the outer web of the outer quill; a ter- 

 minal white patch. Female without the caudal white patch, 

 and the throat mixed with reddish. 



Length. 9.50; wing, 8.20. 



Habitat, northern and eastern North America. 



Family MICROPOJ3ID.E. 



( HiETlRA PELAUICA (L.). (423). 



CHIMNEY SWIFT. 



The Chimney Swallow has long been as well represented bj- 

 numbers as any other species relatively. They arrive from 

 the 15th to the 20th of April, at first in rather limited numbers, 

 as they are only the males, and at once select their gregarious 

 quarters for perching and building their nests. The rapidity 

 of their flight is such that there seems to be but a few hours 

 difference in their appearance in all the localities systematic- 

 ally reported. They pair at once after the arrival of the 

 females, and immediately commence building their very remark- 

 able nests. 



For several years in succession, a moderately large chimney 

 in my own house was chosen by them for one district of the 

 city, where they congregated in such numbers as only the 

 appropriation of the whole length of a 55 foot chimney could 

 have served. Becoming too numerous for their quarters the 

 following year they selected a much larger one, devoted to 

 ventilation, in a house heated by hot air, and never used for 

 smoke, that was only a block distant. The second season it 

 was occupied, the attention of great numbers of persons was 

 called to their place of nightly rendezvous, and I undertook to 

 register the number of arrivals at the mouth of the chimney 

 from sunset until darkness made it no longer possible. To 

 approximate the actual number which spent the night there, 

 I had to keep a tally of all individuals which left the chimney, 

 and deduct the number from those that entered. According to 

 that computation, not less than 450 swallows, and unquestionably 

 over 500, spent their nights there. It being late in August, 

 it is supposable that the entire brood of the season might have 

 been matured enough to have been included. But they are 

 not sufficient for all of their hordes to be dependant upon 

 chimnies, as near my summer residence on Lake Minnetonka, 

 I found a like number quartered in a large hollow tree, in the 



