228 
NESTS AND EGGS OF 
In the clays of Wilson these birds were known, in the more unsettled 
parts of the country, to repose in large hollow trees, which were open at 
the top. Swallow Trees, as these roosting-places were commonly designated 
by country people, were fancifully supposed to be the winter-quarters of 
the Swifts, where, in vast heaps, they slept away the winter in a condition 
of torpidity, and whence, on the return of spring, they came forth to 
enliven us with their animated expressions. But in the present enlightened 
age, the intelligent take no stock in these statements, but consign such 
rubbish to the domain of oblivion. With the ignorant and superstitious 
it is different. They are invested with peculiar charms, which make them 
matters of pleasant reflection. Attempts have recently been made to revive 
these beliefs, but with slim chances of success. An instance may occur 
where some hapless individual has been left behind by his companions, 
and been forced to seek protection from the inclemency of the season in 
the cavities of trees, as the result of a sad emergency, which the vivid 
imagination of some visionary person might magnify into a hundred birds, 
but of such a case, we have no authentic knowledge. 
For the benefit of those of our readers who have never examined 
these birds closely, but only wdiile in flight, we shall mention a few of the 
characters by which they are readily distinguished by the real student of 
Nature. The same description will apply to the female as to the male, as 
her resemblance in plumage is so strong as to baflle the critical eye of 
the systematist to point out any well-marked distinctions. Both birds have 
a sooty-brown dress, which, however, is not uniform. The throat, from the 
breast to the^bill, is considerably lighter than the general color, the rump 
a trifle paler, wdiile above there is a slight greenish cast. Their length is 
five and a quarter inches, wing five and one-tenth, and tail two and three- 
twentieths. 
The eggs of these birds are somewhat ellijitical, rather less obtuse at 
one extremity than the other. Their ground is a pure, unsjiotted white, 
and in dimensions they vary but little. The average measurement from 
five localities is .77 by ..52 iucbes. 
