THE OOLOGIST 



lived the nearest to it, gave this account : 

 The Swallows were first observed to come 

 out of the tree, in the spring ; about the 

 time that the leaves first began to appear 

 on the trees. From that season, they came 

 out in the morning, about half an hour af- 

 ter sunrise. They rushed out like a stream, 

 as big as the hole in the tree would admit, 

 and ascended in a perpendicular line, until 

 they were about the height of the adjacent 

 trees ; then assumed a circular motion, per- 

 forming their revolutions two or three times, 

 but always in a larger circle, and then dis- 

 persed in every direction. A little before 

 sundown, they returned in immense num- 

 bers, forming several circular motions, and 

 then descended like a stream into the hole, 

 from whence they came out in the nu:)ruing. 

 About the middle of September, they were 

 seen entering the tree, for the last time." 

 " Neither of these accounts are attended 

 with the highest degree of evidence, which 

 the subject may admit of: but I am led to 

 believe from them, that the House Swal- 

 low, in this part of America, generally re- 

 sides during the winter, in the hollow of 

 trees." 



The tree above described, from Middle- 

 bury, Vermont, finally blew down, and, 

 more than half a century (in 1852) after 

 Williams wrote the account above given of 

 it, its remains were visited by his successor 

 in the historical line, Zadock Thompson, 

 and were found scarcely less interesting than 

 the tree itself when inhabited by thousands 

 of Swifts. Thompson gave this account of 

 its condition and contents iu 1852 : " The 

 tree had rotted away, leaving little besides 

 the cylindrical mass, Avhich had filled its 

 hollow. The length of this mass was about 

 seven feet, and its diameter fifteen inches. 

 Of the materials which composed it, about 

 one-halfcousisted of the feathers of the Chim- 

 ney Swallow, being, for the most part, wing 

 and tail feathers. The other half is made 

 up of exuvia of insects, mostly fragments 

 and eggs of the large wood-ant, and a brown 

 substance probably derived i'rom the decay- 

 ed wood of the interior of the tree. This 

 discovery at Middlebury, though interest- 



ing, would not have been regarded as very 

 remarkable, if the materials which filled 

 the hollow of the tree, had been promiscu- 

 ously and disorderly mingled together. Such 

 a jumbled mass would be what we should 

 expect to find in a hollow tree which had 

 been, for centuries, perhaps, the roosting 

 place of myriads of Swallows. But this is 

 not the case. In their general arrangement, 

 the larger feathers have nearly all their quills 

 pointing outward, while their plumes, or 

 ends on which their webs are arranged, 

 point inward. . . But this is not the most 

 remarkable circumstance connected with the 

 subject. In various parts of the mass, are 

 found, in some cases, all the primary feath- 

 ers of the wing ; in others, all the feathers 

 of the tail, lying together in contact, and in 

 precisely the same order and position, in 

 which they are found in the living Swallow. 

 In a lump of the materials, measuring not 

 more than seven inches by five, and less 

 than three inches thick, five wings and two 

 tails were plainly seen, with their feathers 

 arranged as above mentioned, and in one 

 of the wings, all the secondary quills were 

 also arranged in their true position with 

 regard to the primaries. Now, we cannot 

 conceive it possible that these feathers could 

 be shed by living birds, and be thus depos- 

 ited. We may suppose that the birds died 

 there, and that their flesh had been removed 

 by decay, or by insects, without deranging 

 the feathers. But iu that case what has 

 become of the skeletons ? I do not learn 

 that a bone, beak, or a claw has been found 

 in any part of the whole mass. What then 

 has become of these? They could hardly 

 have been removed by violent means, with- 

 out disturbing the feathers. But, if done 

 quietly, what did it? What insect would 

 devour the bones, and beak, and claws, 

 and not meddle with the quills ? Or would 

 the formic, or any other acid, which might 

 be generated within the mass, dissolve the 

 former without nfFectiuo; the latter?" 



Full plumaged specimens may be ob- 

 tained after the first of September. 



