271 
Saw a few barn-swallows also, this afternoon ; but most of these 
seem to have left us already. 
Mmiday, l^th. — About sunset this evening observed many 
night-hawks flying over the village. 
We happened once to see a large flight of these birds. We 
were travelling a short distance north of the Mohawk, at this very 
date, the 28th of August, when, about an hour before sunset, a 
number of large birds were seen rising from a wood to the east- 
ward, all moving slowly in a loose, straggling flock, toward the 
south-west. They proved to be night-hawks ; and they continued 
passing at intervals until an hour after sunset. They seemed to 
heed each other very little, being seldom near together, but all 
were aiming in the same direction. We must have seen several 
hundreds of them, in the course of the two hours they were in 
sight. 
Tuesday, 29 tk. — The swallows have moved their parade-ground 
this evening. We missed them about the house, but found them 
wheeling over the highway, near the bridge, the very spot where 
we first saw them in the spring. 
Wednesday, Sdth. — Walked in the woods. Observing an old 
branchless trunk of the largest size, in a striking position, where 
it looked like a broken column, we walked up to examine it. The 
shaft rose, without a cm-ve or a branch, to the height of perhaps 
forty feet, where it had been abruptly shivered, probably in some 
storm. The tree was a chestnut, and the bark of a clear, unsul- 
lied gray ; walking round it, we saw an opening near the ground, 
and to our surprise found the trunk hollow, and entirely charred 
within, black as a chimney, from the root to the point where it 
was broken off". It frequently happens that fire steals into the 
12* 
