234 CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 



when the leaves began to appear on the trees, and about the middle of 

 September they were seen entering the tree for the last time ; but there 

 is no information here of their being seen at any time during winter 

 either within or around the tree. This most important part of the 

 matter is taken for granted without the least examination, and, as will 

 be presently shown, without foundation. I shall, I think, also prove 

 that if these trees had been cut down in the depth of winter not a single 

 Swallow would have been found either in a living or a torpid state ! 

 And that this was merely a place of rendezvous for active living birds is 

 evident from the "immense quantity of excrements" found within it, 

 which birds in a state of torpidity are not supposed to produce. The 

 total absence of the relics of nests is a proof that it was not a breeding 

 place, and that the whole was nothing more than one of those places to 

 which this singular bird resorts, immediately on its arrival in May, in 

 which also many of the males continue to roost during the whole summer, 

 and from which they regularly depart about the middle of September. 

 From other circumstances it appears probable that some of these trees 

 have been for ages the summer rendezvous or general roosting place of 

 the whole Chimney Swallows of an extensive district. Of this sort I 

 conceive the following to be one which is thus described by a late 

 traveller to the westward. 



Speaking of the curiosities of the state of Ohio the writer observes, 

 " In connection with this I may mention a large collection of feathers 

 found within a hollow tree which I examined with the Rev. Mr. Story, 

 May 18, 1803. It is in the upper part of Waterford, about two miles 

 distant from the Muskingum. A very large sycamore, which through 

 age had decayed and fallen down, contained in its hollow trunk, five 

 and a half feet in diameter, and for nearly fifteen feet upwards, a mass 

 of decayed feathers with a small admixture of brownish dust and the 

 exuviae of various insects. The feathers were so rotten that it was 

 impossible to determine to what kind of birds they belonged. They 

 were less than those of the pigeon ; and the largest of them were like 

 the pinion and tail feathers of the Swallow. I examined carefully this 

 astonishing collection in the hope of finding the bones and bills, but 

 could not distinguish any. The tree with some remains of its ancient 

 companions lying around was of a growth preceding that of the neigh- 

 boring forest. Near it and even out of its mouldering ruins grow thrifty 

 trees of a size which indicate two or three hundred years of age."* 



Such are the usual roosting places of the Chimney Swallow in the 

 more thinly settled parts of the country. In towns, however, they are 

 difi'erently situated, and it is matter of curiosity to observe that they 

 frequently select the court-house chimney for their general place of 



* Harris's Journal, p. 180. 



