CHIMNEY SWALLOW 



51 



vember, 1791, the top of this tree was blown down twenty feet 

 below where the Swallows entered. There has been no appear- 

 ance of the Swallows since. Upon cutting down the remainder an 

 immense quantity of excrements, quills and feathers, were found, 

 but no appearance or relics of any nests. 



" Another of these Swallow trees was at Bridport. The man 

 who lived the nearest to it gave this account. The Swallows were 

 first observed to come out of the tree in the spring about the time 

 that the leaves first began to appear on the trees ; from that season 

 they came out in the morning about half an hour after sun-rise. 

 They rushed out like a stream, as big as the hole in the tree would 

 admit, and ascended in a perpendicular line until they were above 

 the height of the adjacent trees; then assumed a circular motion, 

 performing their evolutions two or three times, but always in a 

 larger circle, and then dispersed in every direction. A little be- 

 fore sun-down they returned in immense numbers, forming several 

 circular motions, and then descended like a stream into the hole, 

 from whence they came out in the morning. About the middle 

 of September they were seen entering the tree for the last time. 

 These birds were all of the species called the House or Chimney 

 Swallow. The tree was a large hollow elm; the hole at which they 

 entered was about forty feet above the ground, and about nine 

 inches in diameter. The Swallows made their first appearance in 

 the spring and their last appearance in the fall in the vicinity of 

 this tree ; and the neighbouring inhabitants had no doubt but that 

 the Swallows continued in it during the winter. A few years ago 

 a hole was cut at the bottom of the tree ; from that time the Swal- 

 lows have been gradually forsaking the tree and have now almost 

 deserted it.'^ 



Tho Mr. Williams himself, as he informs us, is led to believe 

 from these and some other particulars which he details, " that the 

 House Swallow in this part of America generally resides during the 

 winter in the hollow of trees; and the Ground Swallows [Bank 



