4-28 
CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 
tion 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 considera- 
ble 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 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 resurrection in spring, and here they have 
again been remarked descending to their death-like sleep in au- 
tumn. 
Among various accounts of these trees that might be quoted, 
the following are selected as bearing 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. F rom a man who for 
several years lived within twenty rods of it, I procured this in- 
formation. 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, circulating 
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 November, 1791, the top of this tree was blown 
