THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 9 
ing place. After their arrival they visit some unoccupied 
chimney or hollow tree, which a great number use as a tem- 
porary residence during stormy weather, and to roost in. 
In this as it were aimless gathering-place, they do not long 
remain, but soon begin to select their companions, and at 
such times they may be seen high in the air, especially in 
the middle of an extremely warm day, chasing each other in 
circles upon extended wings, but without that quick vibrating 
motion they employ when in pursuit of their prey, uttering 
the while their peculiar notes; their choice of mates being 
made they commence building their nests. They are usually 
placed in a chimney, in which a number of pairs breed, for 
they colonize the same place to the number of three or four 
pairs, and sometimes to fifty pairs, more or less. The nest 
is constructed in a singular manner: it is made of small dry 
twigs, broken from some dead branch of a tree by the bird 
flying swiftly against it, and then carried to the spot and 
fastened to it with a strong viscid substance supplied by 
their large salivary glands. Each stick is laid near the other 
and some crosswise, and there glued by the bird until the 
nest is finished, which is done by spreading over the entire 
surface of it, as well as the sides of the wall to which it is 
attached, a coat of the same tenacious gum. It resembles a 
shelf, containing only a small cavity to receive the eggs, and 
lacks the soft lining that characterizes the nests of other 
species of swallows. 
In the month of May (1868) a chimney was taken down 
in the village called Putnamville, in Danvers. It was a large 
chimney connected with a shoe factory, that had not been 
used for four or five years. During the time of its disuse a 
large colony of chimney swallows occupied it to breed in. I 
had a good opportunity to examine their nests, to take their 
dimensions, etc., and not one of the many which I saw (and 
the number of nests were upwards of two hundred) were 
“lined with a few feathers and straws.” 
Although their visit is short, they raise two broods in the 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 2 
