50 



CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 



for perhaps a week or more. Nay it is not uncommon for them 

 voluntarily to leave the nest long before they are able to fly, and 

 to fix themselves on the wall, where they are fed until able to hunt 

 for themselves. 



When these birds first arrive in spring, and for a considerable 

 time after, they associate together every evening in one general ren- 

 dezvous; those of a whole district roosting together. This place 

 of repose, in the more unsettled parts of the country, is usually a 

 large hollow tree open at top, trees of that kind, or Swallow trees^ 

 as they are usually called, having been noticed in various parts of 

 the country and generally believed to be the winter quarters of 

 these birds, where, heaps upon heaps, they dozed away the winter 

 in a state of torpidity. Here they have been seen on their resur- 

 rection in spring, and here they have again been remarked de- 

 scending to their death-like sleep in autumn. 



Among various accounts of these trees that might be quoted, 

 the following are selected as bearhig the marks of authenticity. "At 

 Middlebury, in this state," says Mr. Williams, Hist, of Vermont, 

 p. 16, "there was a large hollow elm, called by the people in the 

 vicinity, the Swallow tree. From a man who for several years lived 

 within twenty rods of it, I procured this information. He always 

 thought the Swallows tarried in the tree through the winter, and 

 avoided cutting it down on that account. About the first of May the 

 Swallows came out of it in large numbers, about the middle of the 

 day, and soon returned. As the weather grew warmer they came out 

 in the morning with a loud noise, or roar, and were soon dispersed. 

 About half an hour before sun-down they returned in millions, cir- 

 culating two or three times round the tree, and then descending 

 like a stream into a hole about sixty feet from the ground. It was 

 customary for persons in the vicinity to visit this tree to observe 

 the motions of these birds : and when any persons disturbed their 

 operations by striking violently against the tree with their axes, the 

 Swallows would rush out in millions and with a great noise. In No- 



