The Chimney Swift sg 



and clinging to the sides of the chimney walls. In this situa- 

 tion they continue to be fed for a week or more. Soon tired 

 of their hard cradle, they generally leave it long before they 

 are capable of flying. 



On their first arrival, and for a considerable time after- 

 ward, the males particularly associate to roost in a general 

 resort. This situation, in the remote and unsettled parts of 

 the country, is usually a large hollow tree open at the top. 

 These well-known "Swallow trees" are ignorantly supposed to 

 be the winter quarters of the species, where in heaps they are 

 believed to doze away the cold season in a state of torpidity, 

 but no proof of the fact has ever been adduced. 



The length of time such trees have been resorted to by par- 

 ticular flocks may be conceived perhaps by the account of a 

 hollow tree of this kind described by the Rev. Dr. Harris in 

 his journal. The sycamore alluded to grew in Waterford, 

 Ohio, two miles from the Muskingum River. Its hollow 

 trunk, now fallen, of the diameter of five and a half feet, for 

 nearly fifteen feet upward, contained a solid mass of decayed 

 Swallow feathers, mixed with brownish dust and the exuvise 

 of insects. 



In inland towns these birds have been known to make their 

 general roost in the chimney of the court-house. 



Before descending they fly in large flocks, making many 

 ample and circuitous sweeps in the air, and as the point of the 

 vortex falls individuals drop into the chimneys by degrees, 

 until the whole have descended, which generally takes place 

 in the dusk of the evening. They all, however, disappear 

 about the first week in August. 



Like the Swallow, the Chimney Swift flies very quick, and 

 with but slight vibrations of its wings, appearing as it were to 

 swim in the air in widening circles, shooting backward and 



