166 
THE, CHIMNEY SWALLOW, OE AMERICAN SWIFT. 
in Louisiana, I took the trouble of counting how many entered one chim- 
ney before dark. I sat at a window not far from the spot, and reckoned 
upwards of a thousand, having missed a considerable number. The place 
at that time contained about a hundred houses, and no doubt existed in my 
mind that the greater number of these birds were on their way southward, 
and had merely stopped there for the night. 
Immediately after my arrival at Louisville, in the State of Kentucky, I 
became acquainted with the late hospitable and amiable Major William 
Croghan and his family. While talking one day about birds, he asked me 
if I had seen the trees in which the Swallows-were supposed to spend the 
winter, but which they only entered, he said, for the purpose of roosting. 
Answering in the affirmative, I was informed that on my way back to town, 
there was a tree remarkable on account of the immense numbers that resorted 
to it, and the place in which it stood was described to me. I found it to be 
a sycamore, nearly destitute of branches, sixty or seventy feet high, between 
seven and eight feet in diameter at the base, and about five for the distance 
of forty feet up, where the stump of a broken hollowed branch, about two 
feet in diameter, made out from the main stem. This was the place at which 
the Swallows entered. On closely examining the tree, I found it hard, but 
hollow to near the roots. It was now about four o’clock, afternoon, in the 
month of July. Swallows were flying over Jeffersonville, Louisville, and 
the woods around, but there were none near the tree. I proceeded home, 
and shortly after returned on foot. The sun was going down behind the 
Silver Hills ; the evening was beautiful ; thousands of Swallows were flying 
closely above me, and three or four at a time were pitching into the hole, 
like bees hurrying into their hive. I remained, my head leaning on the 
tree, listening to the roaring noise made within by the birds as they settled 
and arranged themselves, until it was quite dark, when I left the place, 
although I was convinced that many more bad to enter. I did not pretend 
to count them, for the number was too great, and the birds rushed to the 
entrance so thick as to baffle the attempt. I had scarcely returned to Louis- 
ville, when a violent thunder-storm passed suddenly over the town, and its 
appearance made me think that the hurry of the Swallows to enter the tree 
was caused by their anxiety to avoid it. I thought of- the Swallows almost 
the whole night, so anxious had I become to ascertain their number, before 
the -time of their departure should arrive. 
Next morning I rose early enough to reach the place long before the least 
appearance of daylight, and placed my head against the tree. All was silent 
within. I remained in that posture probably twenty minutes, when sudden- 
Jy I thought the great free was giving way, and coming down upon me. 
Instinctively I sprung from it, but when I looked up to it again, what was 
