chimney walls. In this situation they continue to be fed for a week or more. 

 Soon tired of their hard cradle, they generally leave it long before they are 

 capable of flying. 



On their first arrival, and for a considerable time afterward, the males par- 

 ticularly associate to roost in a general resort. This situation, in the remote 

 and unsettled parts of the country, is usually a large hollow tree open at the 

 top. These well-known "Swallow trees" are ignorantly supposed to be the winter 

 quarters of the species, where in heaps they are believed to doze away the cold 

 season in a state of torpidity, but no proof of the fact has ever been adduced. 



The length of time such trees have been resorted to by particular flocks may 

 be conceived perhaps by the account of a hollow tree of this kind described by 

 the Rev. Dr. Harris in his journal. The sycamore alluded to grew in Water- 

 ford, Ohio, two miles from the Muskingum River. Its hollow trunk, now fallen, 

 of the diameter of five and a half feet, for nearly fifteen feet upward, contained 

 a solid mass of decayed Swallow feathers, mixed with brownish dust and the 

 exuviffi of insects. 



In inland towns these birds have been known to make their general roost 

 in the chimney of the court-house. 



Before descending they fly in large flocks, making many ample and circuitous 

 sweeps in the air, and as the point of the vortex falls individuals drop into the 

 chimneys by degrees, until the whole have descended, which generally takes 

 place in the dusk of the evening. They all, however, disappear about the first 

 week in August. 



Like the Swallow, the Chimney Swift flies very quick, and with but slight 

 vibrations of its wings, appearing, as it were, to swim in the air in widening 

 circles, shooting backward and forward through the ambient space at great ele- 

 vations, and yet scarcely moving its wings. Now and then it is heard to utter, 

 in a hurried manner, a sound like tsip-tsip-tsip-tsee-tsee. It is never seen to 

 alight but in hollow trees or chimneys, and appears always most gay and active 

 in wet and gloomy weather. 



The Swift never lights upon the ground or buildings, never touching earthly 

 food, and is capable of flying 1,000 miles in 24 hours. The color plate shows 

 nicely the form and ?ize of the nest and how it is glued to the bricks. Notice 

 that it has no lining. 



81 



