CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 429 



down twenty feet below where the Swallows entered. There 

 has been no appearance of the Swallows since. Upon cutting 

 down the remainder an immense quantity of excrements, quills 

 and feathers, were found, but no appearance or relics of any 

 nests. 



" Another of these Swallow trees was at Bridport. The man 

 who 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 after 

 sun-rise. They rushed out like a stream, as big as the hole in 

 the tree would admit, and ascended in a perpendicular line un- 

 til they were above the height of the adjacent trees; then as- 

 sumed a circular motion, performing their evolutions two or 

 three times, but always in a larger circle, and then dispersed in 

 every direction. A little before sun-down they returned in im- 

 mense numbers, forming several circular motions, and then de- 

 scended like a stream into the hole, from whence they came 

 out in the morning. About the middle of September they were 

 seen entering the tree for the last time. These birds were all 

 of the species called the House or Chimney Swallow. The tree 

 was a large hollow elm; the hole at which they entered was 

 about forty feet above the ground, and about nine inches in di- 

 ameter. The Swallows made their first appearance in the spring 

 and their last appearance in the fall in the vicinity of this tree; 

 and the neighbouring inhabitants had no doubt but that the 

 Swallows continued in it during the winter. A few years ago 

 a hole was cut at the bottom of the tree; from that time the 

 Swallows have been gradually forsaking the tree and have now 

 almost deserted it." 



Though Mr. Williams himself, as he informs us, is led to be- 

 lieve from these and some other particulars which he details, 

 " that the House Swallow in this part of America generally re- 

 sides during the winter in the hollow of trees; and the Ground 

 Swallows [Bank Swallows] find security in the mud at the bot- 

 tom of lakes, rivers, and ponds," yet I cannot in the cases just 



