240 NOTES ON THE 
maries with a white blotch midway between the tip and carpal 
joint, not extending on the outer web of the outer quill; a ter- 
minal white patch. Female without the caudal white patch, 
and the throat mixed with reddish. 
Length, 9.50; wing, 8.20. 
Habitat, northern and eastern North America. 
Family MICROPODID_E. 
CHETURA PELAGICA (L.). (423). 
CHIMNEY SWIFT. 
The Chimney Swallow has long been as well represented by 
numbers as any other species relatively. They arrive from 
the 15th to the 20th of April, at first in rather limited numbers, 
as they are only the males, and at once select their gregarious 
quarters for perching and building their nests. The rapidity 
of their flight is such that there seems to be but a few hours 
difference in their appearance in all the localities systematic- 
ally reported. They pair at once after the arrival of the 
females. and immediately commence building their very remark- 
able nests. 
For several years in succession, a moderately large chimney 
in my own house was chosen by them for one district of the 
city, where they congregated in such numbers as only the 
appropriation of the whole length of a 55 foot chimney could 
have served. Becoming too numerous for their quarters the 
following year they selected a much larger one, devoted to 
ventilation, in a house heated by hot air, and never used for 
smoke, that was only a block distant. The second season it 
was occupied, the attention of great numbers of persons was 
called to their place of nightly rendezvous, and I undertook to 
register the number of arrivals at the mouth of the chimney 
from sunset until darkness made it no longer possible. To 
approximate the actual number which spent the night there, 
I had to keep a tally of all individuals which left the chimney, 
and deduct the number from those that entered. According to 
that computation, not less than 450 swallows, and unquestionably 
over 500, spent their nights there. It being late in August, 
it is supposable that the entire brood of the season might have 
been matured enough to have been included. But they are 
not sufficient for all of their hordes to be dependant upon 
chimnies, as near my summer residence on Lake Minnetonka, 
I found a like number quartered in a large hollow tree, in the 
