CHIMNE Y SWALLOW. x 5 i 



at least some of their nests would appear towards the top, as 

 we find such is the case where but few nests are in a place." 



In a subsequent letter Mr Churchman writes as follows : — 

 " After the young brood produced in the different chimneys 

 in Easton had taken wing, and a week or ten days previous to 

 their total disappearance, they entirely forsook the court-house 

 chimney, and rendezvoused in accumulated numbers in the 

 southernmost chimney of John Boss's mansion, situated per- 

 haps one hundred feet north-eastward of the court-house. In 

 this last retreat I several times counted more than two 

 hundred go in of an evening, when I could not perceive a 

 single bird enter the court-house chimney. I was much 

 diverted one evening on seeing a cat, which came upon the 

 roof of the house, and placed herself near the chimney, where 

 she strove to arrest the birds as they entered without success : 

 she at length ascended to the chimney top and took her 

 station, and the birds descended in gyrations without seeming 

 to regard grimalkin, who made frequent attempts to grab 

 them. I was pleased to see that the)' all escaped her fangs. 

 About the first week in the ninth month [September], the birds 

 quite disappeared ; since which I have not observed a single 

 individual. Though I was not so fortunate as to be present 

 at their general assembly and council, when they concluded 

 to take their departure, nor did I see them commence their 

 flight, yet I am fully persuaded that none of them remain 

 in any of our chimneys here. I have had access to Ross's 

 chimney, where they last resorted, and could see the lights 

 out from bottom to top, without the least vestige or appear- 

 ance of any birds. Mary Ross also informed me that they 

 have had their chimneys swept previous to their making fires, 

 and, though late in autumn, no birds have been found there. 

 Chimneys, also, which have not been used, have been 

 ascended by sweeps in the winter without discovering any. 

 Indeed, all of them are swept every fall and winter, and I 

 have never heard of the swallows being found, in either a 

 dead, living, or torpid state. As to the court-house, it has 



