232 
CHIMNEY S W A L L 0 W. 
and the numerous ready conveniences which these new situations afford, 
are doubtless some of the advantages. The choice they have made cer- 
tainly bespeaks something more than mere unreasoning instinct, and 
does honor to their discernment. 
The nest of this bird is of singular construction, being formed of 
very small twigs, fastened together with a strong adhesive glue or gum, 
which is secreted by two glands, one on each side of the hind head, and 
mixes with the saliva. With this glue, which becomes hard as the twigs 
themselves, the whole nest is thickly besmeared. The nest itself is 
small and shallow, and attached by one side or edge to the wall, and is 
totally destitute of the soft lining with which the others are so plenti- 
fully supplied. The eggs are generally four, and white. They gene- 
rally have two broods in the season. The young are fed at intervals 
during the greater part of the night, a fact wilich I have had frequent 
opportunities of remarking both here and in the Mississippi territory. 
The noise which the old ones make in passing up and down the funnel 
has some resemblance to distant thunder. When heavy and long-con- 
tinued rains occur, the nest, losing its hold, is precipitated to the bottom. 
This disaster frequently happens. The eggs are destroyed ; but the 
young, though blind (which they are for a considerable time), sometimes 
scramble up along the vent, to which they cling like squirrels, the 
muscularity of their feet and the sharpness of their claws at this tender 
age being remarkable. In this situation they continue to be fed 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 rendezvous ; 
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 gene- 
rally 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 resurrection in spring, and here they 
have again been remarked descending to their death-like sleep in 
autumn. 
Among various accounts of these trees that might be quoted, the fol- 
lowing are selected as bearing the marks of authenticity. " At Middle- 
bury, 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 
