334 CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 



the 18th of the same month, not one did 1 see near it, and only a few 

 scattered individuals were passing, as if moving southward. In Septem- 

 ber 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 countiy, I finally closed the 

 entrance, and left off visiting it. 



May arrived, bringing with its vernal warmth the wanderers of the 

 air, and I saw their number daily augmenting, as they resorted to the tree 

 to roost. About the beginning of June, I took it in my head to close the 

 aperture above, with a bundle of straw, which with a string I could 

 draw off whenever I might chuse. The result was curious enough ; the 

 birds as usual came to the tree towards night ; they assembled, passed and 

 repassed, with apparent discomfort, until I perceived many flying off" to a 

 great distance, on which I removed the straw, when many entered the hole, 

 and continued to do so until I could no longer see them from the ground. 



I left Louisville, having removed my residence to Henderson, and did 

 not see the tree until five years after, when I still found the Swallows re- 

 sorting to it. The pieces of wood with which I had closed the entrance 

 had rotted, or had been carried off, and the hole was again completely 

 filled with exuviae and mould. During a severe storm, their ancient tene- 

 ment at length gave way, and came to the ground. 



General William Clakk assured me that he saw this species on the 

 whole of his route to the Pacific, and there can be no doubt that in those 

 wilds it still breeds in trees or rocky caverns. 



Its food consists entirely of insects, the pellets composed of the indi- 

 gestible parts of which it disgorges. It is furnished with glands which 

 supply the unctuous matter with which it fastens its nest. 



This species does not appear to extend its migrations farther east than 

 the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It is unknown 

 in Newfoundland and Labrador ; nor was it until the 29th of May that 

 I saw some at Eastport in Maine, where a few breed. 



HiRUNDO PELASGiA, Linn. Syst. Nat. voL i. p. 345. Latli, Ind. Ornith. voL ii. p. 581 . 

 Cypselus pelasgius, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 63. 

 Chimney Swallow, Hirundo pelasgia, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. v. p. 48, pi. 39. 

 fig. 1. Nuttall, Manual, p. 609. 



Adult Male. Plate CLVIII. Fig. 1. 



Bill extremely short, very broad at the base, with a very wide rictus, 



