Swallows going to roost. 
Concord, Mass. 
1887. I pushed out into midstream and ate my lunch there. The 
Aug. 15. sun was setting and the scene very peaceful and beautiful. 
Nearly 200 Swallows (about 150 Barn and 50 White-bellies ) 
passed in the course of fifteen minutes straggling along in 
the usual manner. I suspected at first that they were migrat- 
ing as they were flying up river (due South) out a little 
later when I reached the bend just below Ball’s Hill I was 
surprised to finding them dashing about in a close swarm now 
' 
high, now just over the meadow grass. I saw at once that they 
were preparing to go to roost but for nearly twenty minutes 
they gave no clear indication of the precise spot . During 
this time they were whirling about in the most erratic manner, 
rising to a height of 300 or 400 feet, then dashing down close 
- 
over the river and meadow, at times massed together like a 
swarm of waders, at others spreading out more like Bobolinks 
but always flying in a nearly direct course and never inclin- 
ing from side to side in the usual way. Finally the whole 
throng dashed into and through a cluster of young white maples 
and black willows - trees 12 to 15 feet high - on the end of 
the point around which the river bends. Dozens swished 
through the leaves but not one, as far as I could see, actu- 
