432 
CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 
tering their peculiar note with great sprightliness, kept a regu- 
lar circuitous sweep around the top of the court-house, and about 
fourteen or fifteen feet above it, revolving with great rapidity 
for the space of at least ten minutes. There could not be less 
than four or five hundred of them. They now gradually varied 
their line of motion until one part of its circumference passed 
immediately over the chimney and about five or six feet above 
it. Some as they passed made a slight feint of entering, which 
was repeated by those immediately after, and by the whole cir- 
cling multitude in succession; in this feint they approached 
nearer and nearer at every revolution, dropping perpendicu- 
larly, but still passing over; the circle meantime becoming more 
and more contracted, and the rapidity of its revolution greater as 
the dusk of evening increased, until at length one, and then ano- 
ther, dropped in, another and another followed, the circle still 
revolving until the whole multitude had descended except one 
or two. These flew off as if to collect the stragglers, and in a 
few seconds returned with six or eight more, which, after one 
or two rounds, dropped in one by one, and all was silence for 
the night. It seemed to me hardly possible that the internal sur- 
face of the vent could accommodate them all, without clustering 
on one another, which I am informed they never do; and I was 
very desirous of observing their ascension in the morning, but 
having to set off before day, I !iad not that gratification. Mr. 
Churchman however, to whom I have since transmitted a few 
queries, has been so obliging as to inform me, that towards the 
beginning of June the number of those that regularly retired to 
the court-house to roost, was not more than one-fourth of the 
former; that on the morning of the twenty-third of June he par- 
ticularly observed their reascension, which took place at a quar- 
ter past four, or twenty minutes before sun-rise, and that they 
passed out in less than three minutes. That at my request the 
chimney had been examined from above; but that as far down 
at least as nine feet, it contained no nests; though at a former 
period it is certain that their nests were very numerous there, 
so that the chimney was almost choked, and a sweep could with 
