26 



APPENDIX TO THOMPSON'S "VTERMONT. 



CHIMNEY SWALLOW- 



PASSEKGER PIGEON. 



AMERICAN BITTERN. 



brownish dust and the exuvia of various 

 insects." 



The remains of a tree of this description 

 wei'e found in this state, in Middlebury, so' 

 lately as the spring of 1852. The tree had 

 been blown down, and had, nearly all, 

 rotted away, leaving little besides the cyl- 

 indrical mass, which had filled its hollow. 

 The length of this mass was about seven 

 feet, and its diameter 1-5 inches. Of the 

 materials, which composed it, about one 

 half consisted of the feathers of the Chim- 

 ney Swallow, being, for the most part, 

 wing and tail-feathers. The other half 

 was made up of exuvia of insects, mostlj^ 

 fragments and eggs of the large wood-ant, 

 and a brown substance^ probably derived 

 from the decayed wood of the interior of the 

 tree. 



This discovei-y at Middleburj-, though 

 interesting, would not have been regarded 

 as vci-y remarkable, if the materials, v.'hich 

 had tilled the hollow of the tree, had been 

 promiscuously and disorderly mingled to- 

 gether. Such a jumbled mass would be 

 what we should expect to find in a hollow 

 tree which had been, for centuries, per- 

 liaps, the roosting place of myriads of Swal- 

 lows. But this is not the case. In their 

 general arrangement, the larger feathers 

 have nearly all their quills pointing out- 

 ward, Avhile their plumes, or ends on which 

 their webs are arranged, point inward. 

 This arrangement might perliaps have 

 arisen from the nesting of small quadru- 

 peds in the hollow, making the feathers 

 their bed. But this is not the most remark- 

 able circumstance connected with the sub- 

 ject. In various parts of the mass, ai'e 

 found, in some cases, iill the primary 

 feathers of the wing; in others, all the 

 feathers^of the tail, lying together in con- 

 tact, and in precisel.y the same order and 

 position, in which they are found in the 



ing the feathers. But, if done quietly, 

 wliat did it? What insect would devour 

 the bones, and beaks, 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 affecting the latter ? These 

 are questions, to which the savans have 

 not yet returned any satisfactory response. 

 A specimen, from the above mentioned 

 feathery mass, was obtained, in May, 1852, 

 by Mr. J. A. .Jameson, Tutor in the Uni- 

 versity of Vermont, and presented, by him, 

 to the Museum of that Institution, to be 

 pi'eserved as a relic of primeval Vermont. 



PASSENGER PIGEON.— (Part I, p. 100.) 

 Columba migrate ria. — Linn. 

 Having learned that Pigeons had appear- 

 ed and reared their young in large numbers, 

 in the spring of 1849, in several towns on 

 the Green Mountains, particularly in Fays- 

 ton and AVan-en, in Washington county, 

 ;:3id being desirous in case the}- should re- 

 turn there the next spring, to visit the 

 localities, for the purpose of observing the 

 habits of the Pigeons, and securing sofpe of 

 their eggs for specimens, I addressed a note 

 of inquiry to Jacob Boyce, Esq., of Fayston. 

 To this note I received the following reply: 



Fayston, June 28, 18-50. 

 Mr. Tho.mpson : 



Sir, — I have_received yours of the 10th 

 inst. , requesting information about Pigeons. 

 Thej- are not here the present season. Last 

 year they came here early in April, and 

 commenced building their nests by the 

 middle of that month ; and they left here 

 with their young, about the middle of June. 

 Their nests extended over a territory of, at 

 least, ?,000 acres. Above the height of 25 

 feet from the ground, the tops of the trees 

 living swallow. In a lumpof the materials, iwere covered with nests. Some large 

 measuring not more than 7 inches by 5, 1 birches had from 100 to 125 nests on a 

 .and less than 3 inches thick, five wings and I tree. The nests consisted of bunches of 

 two tails were plainly seen, with their sticks, placed in the crotches of the limbs, 

 feathers arranged as above mentioned, and, I Thej- laid only two eggs in a nest, and 

 in one of the wings, all the secondary quills ! raised only one brood. There might have 

 were also arranged in their true position I been any quantity of egg;s obt.ained from 

 with regard to the primaries. the nests; and great numbers of eggs rolled 



Now, we cannot conceive it possible that; out of the nests and lay scattered on the 

 these feathers coukl be shed by living birds, I ground, but I do not know that any of the 

 and be thus deposited. We may suppose j eggs were preserved, 

 that the birds died there, and that their i Respectfully yours, 



flesh had been removed by decay, or by in- ' JACOB BOYCE. 



sects, without deranging the feathers. But ' 

 in that case, ivhat has become of the skele- ' . 



tons .' I do not learn that a bone, beak, or , 'VMERICAN BITTERN 



claw, has been found in any part of the ' 



whole mass. What, tiien, has become of Ardea mi7iO?-.— Wilson. 



these ? They could haixlly have been re- DESCniPTiON. — General color yellowish 

 moved by violent means, Avithout disturb- \ ferruginous, mottled and sprinkled with 



