1 48 CHIMNE Y S WALL W. 



in a living or torpid state ! And that tills 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 18th, 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 kinds of birds they belonged. They were less than tho.se 

 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 neighbouring 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." * 

 * Harris's Journal, p. 180. 





