Vol. Xin Batks, a Swallow Roost in Maine. AQ 



1895 J ' -' 



come out of the distance till one thinks the barns, banks, martin- 

 houses and swallow nests of whatever description all over Maine 

 must have yielded up their inmates. Shortly after sunset they 

 gather more nearly in the region directly above the trees, incomers 

 from every point of the horizon still joining them and toward the 

 last exhibiting great hurry and intentness, as if fearful of being 

 " late to meeting." ^ 



Then begin the movements that are the most interesting feature 

 of this gathering. At intervals clouds of Swallows will evolve 

 something Uke order out of their numbers and perform en masse 

 some of the most fantastic curves, spirals, counter-marches, snake- 

 like twists and turns, with the sky for a background, that ever a 

 company of genus homo executed on a finely polished floor. For 

 instance, one evening they separated into two parts, one going 

 to the right, the other to the left, each division making a grand 

 circle outward, then joining again for a forward movement. 

 There were some stragglers, but the figure was distinct and was 

 twice performed, with other evolutions interspersed. Then a long 

 snake-like movement from the upper air down very slightly inclined 

 from the vertical, with two twists in it, a loop around a tall tree 

 farther down the stream, and back, brought them into the tree-tops 

 for roosting. That was the cleanest and most astonishing figure 

 1 ever saw them perform. Occasionally they drop down into the 

 trees like pieces of paper, but oftener the final alighting is a 

 combined movement, sometimes in the shape of an inverted cone, 



usually in a grand sweep after their most elaborate evolution. 



Frequently they swoop out from the trees company after company, 

 several times before the last settling, their wings not only making 

 a tremendous whirring, but a perceptible movement of the air. 

 Their chattering keeps up from half to three quarters of an hour 

 after they settle in the trees and their dark little bodies against 



' Just here let me say that having asked six men of reputed good judgment 

 to give their individual ideas of the number of Swallows when this congregating 

 season is at its height, the average of guesses (for such only could they be) 

 brings the number about thirty thousand, the highest guess being one hundred 

 thousand, the lowest, five thousand. Attempts have been made to photograph 

 them, but at the time when they are best massed and sufficiently near for a 

 photograph, the light is so dim that nothing whatever appears on the film. 



