"So 



The Chimney Szvift. 



sage cleared, or rather bored through this 

 mass, for nearly six feet. This operation 

 took a good deal of time, and knowing by 

 experience that if the birds should notice 

 the hole below they would abandon the tree, 

 I had it carefully closed. The Swallows 

 came as usual that night, and I did not dis- 

 turb them for several days. At la.st, pro- 

 vided with a dark lantern, I went with my 

 companion about nine in the evening, de- 

 termined to have a full view of the interior 

 of the tree. The hole was opened with 

 caution. I scrambled up the sides of the 

 mass of exuvia;, and my companion followed. 

 All was perfectly silent. Slowly and grad- 

 ually I brought the light of the lantern to 

 bear on the sides of the hole above us, when 

 Ave saw the swallows clinging side by side, 

 covering the whole surface of the excava- 

 tion. In no instance did I see one above 

 another. Satisfied with the sight I closed 

 the lantern. We then * * * * ^\^^ 

 down into the open air. * * * * * 



" Let us now make a rough calculation of 

 the number that clung to the tree. The 

 space beginning at the pile of feathers and 

 moulded exuviae, and ending at the en- 

 trance of the hole above, might be fully 25 

 feet in height, with a breadth of 15 feet, 

 supposing the tree to be five feet in diame- 

 ter at an average. There would thus be 

 375 five feet square of surface. Each 

 squa're foot, allowing a bird to cover a 

 space of 3 inches by i^, which is more 

 than enough, judging from the manner in 

 which they were packed, would contain 32 

 birds. The number of Swallows, therefore, 

 that roosted in this single tree was 9,000 

 [12,000]. 



" I watched the motions of the Swallows, 

 and when the young birds that had been 

 raised in the chimneys of Louisville, Jeffer- 

 sonville, and the houses of the neighbor- 

 hood, or the trees suited for the purpose, 

 had left their native recesses, I visited the 

 tree on the second day of August. I con- 

 cluded tliat the number resorting to it had 



not increased, but I found many more 

 females a-nd young, than males. * * * 



" Day after day I watched the tree. On 

 the 13th of August, not more than two or 

 three hundred came there to roost. On the 

 1 8th of the same month, not one did I see 

 near it, and only a few scattered individuals 

 were passing, as if moving southward. In 

 September, I entered the tree at night, but 

 not a bird was in it. Once more I went to 

 it in February, when the weather was very 

 cold ; and perfectly satisfied that all these 

 Swallows had left our country I finally 

 closed the entrance and left off visiting." 



We were fortunate enough one summer 

 to witness the assemblage and descent in- 

 to their roosting place of a great throng of 

 Chimney Swifts. The place chosen was a 

 large old-fashioned chimney rising from 

 the middle of a long low house on the 

 main street of a little Connecticut village, 

 and the time was the last of June. The 

 Swifts began to gather about the house 

 half an hour before sunset, and to swing 

 around it in a large ellipse. As the sun 

 sank lower and lower, the number of birds 

 greatly increased, and the ellipse grew 

 smaller, and gradually changed its form to 

 that of a circle. The sound of wings and 

 the chattering was audible at a distance of 

 a hundred yards. 



Presently a few birds swung off from the 

 inside of the flying mass and turned, by 

 gradually decreasing circles, toward the 

 chimney, into which they dropped. Others 

 followed, the line becoming constantly 

 thicker, and the outer circle growing con- 

 stantly smaller. By the time the sun had 

 set, the birds had all gathered about the 

 chimney and the mass looked like a huge 

 whirling funnel, whose lower and smaller 

 end was within the chimney. This funnel 

 was perhaps twelve feet in height and 

 twelve feet across at the top, and yet two- 

 thirds of the birds had disappeared within 

 the chimney. It grew smaller quite rapidly, 

 but all had not gone in when it became too 



