CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 



53 



nearly fifteen feet upwards, a mass of decayed feathers with a small 

 admixtm^e of brownish dust and the exuviae of various insects. The 

 feathers were so rotten that it was impossible to determine to what 

 kind of birds they belonged. They were less than those of the 

 pigeon; and the largest of them were like the pinion and tail fea- 

 thers of the Swallow. I examined carefully this astonishing col- 

 lection in the hope of finding the bones and bills, but could not 

 distinguish any. The tree with some remains of its ancient com- 

 panions lying around was of a growth preceding that of the neigh- 

 bouring 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.''^ 



Such are the usual roosting places of the Chimney Swallow in 

 the more thinly settled parts of the country. In towns, however, 

 they are differently situated, and it is matter of curiosity to observe 

 that they frequently select the court-house chimney for their gene- 

 ral place of rendezvous, as being usually more central, and less 

 liable to interruption during the night. I might enumerate many 

 places where this is their practice. Being in the town of Reading, 

 Pennsylvania, in the month of August, I took notice of sixty or 

 eighty of these birds, a little before evening, amusing themselves 

 by ascending and descending the chimney of the court-house there. 

 I was told that in the early part of summer they were far more 

 numerous at that particular spot. On the twentietii of May in re- 

 turning from an excursion to the Great Pine swamp, I spent part 

 of the day in the town of Easton, where I was informed by my 

 respected friend Mordecai Churchman, cashier of the bank there, 

 and one of the people called Quakers, that the Chimney Swallows 

 of Easton had selected the like situation; and that from the win- 

 dows of his house, which stands nearly opposite to the court-house, 

 I might in an hour or two witness their whole manoeuvres. 



VOL. v 



* Harris's Journal, p. 180. 



O 



