^O Bates, A S^vullon' Roosi in Maine. \_Ur^ 



the sunset sky look as numerous as the leaves. Often they weigh 

 down a branch and then a great chattering, scolding and re-adjust- 

 ment ensues. Sometimes there is a movement through the 

 tree-tops to one spot as if a conference were called, and a more 

 surprising amount of chattering than before. Then in a few 

 minutes back they come till the tree-tops are about equally full. 

 The noise which they make is suggestive of the whirring of looms 

 in a cotton mill, heard through the open windows, — or of some 

 kinds of water-falls. 



They leave the trees in the morning a little before sunrise. 

 August 26 we watched them go out. At 4.15 there were sounds 

 as if of awakening and gradually the noise increased. At 4.25 

 they began to arise in companies at intervals of two or three 

 minutes. They did not remain long in the locality and by five 

 o'clock not one was to be seen. 



During a heavy wind and rain-storm late one afternoon, the 

 Swallows came about our house and those of our neighbors' on 

 both sides of us, alighting on windows, blinds, cornices, gutters — 

 every conceivable perching place, as well as the trees about the 

 houses. Two electric wires running from one of the houses to 

 the stable, a distance of fifty feet, were literally packed full, great 

 scolding and pecking going on at new comers trying to find a 

 foot-hold. Reckoning at least five to a foot, there were five 

 hundred birds on the wires and they were quite as plentiful on 

 many of the trees and upon the houses. This, and one or two 

 similar occasions, afforded us a good opportunity for verifying 

 our conjectures as to the kinds of Swallows. The greater propor- 

 tion is Barn Swallows, but there are large numbers of Martins 

 with them and also Bank Swallows. I see no reason why there 

 should not be White-bellied Swallows and Eave Swallows too, as 

 they build about here, but we have not seen them with the others. 

 Swifts frequently fly in and out among the companies as they are 

 gathering and even during some of their evolutions, yet they seem 

 to be on different business, and very important at that, and we 

 have never seen them going into the trees, though several people 

 claim that they roost there. 



At the time of the wind and rain-storm mentioned, we had 

 sufficient curiosity to get into water-proofs and rubbers and 



