BARN SWALLOW. 
135 
dressing and arranging their plumage, and making occasional 
essays, twittering with great cheerfulness. Their song is a 
kind of sprightly warble, sometimes continued for a con- 
siderable time. From this period to the 8th of September, 
they are seen near the Schuylkill and Delaware, every after- 
noon, for two or three hours before sunset, passing along to 
the south in great numbers, feeding as they skim along. I 
have counted several hundreds pass within sight in less than 
a quarter of an hour, all directing their course towards the 
south. The reeds are now their regular roosting places; 
and, about the middle of September, there is scarcely an 
individual of them to be seen. How far south they continue 
their route is uncertain ; none of them remain in the United 
States. Mr Bartram informs me, that, during his residence in 
Florida, he often saw vast flocks of this and our other 
Swallows, passing from the peninsula towards the south in 
September and October ; and also on their return to the north 
about the middle of March. It is highly probable, that, were 
the countries to the south of the Gulf of Mexico, and as far 
south as the great river Maranon, visited and explored by a 
competent naturalist, these regions would be found to be 
the winter rendezvous of the very birds now before us, and 
most of our other migratory tribes. 
In a small volume which I have lately met with, entitled, 
An Account of the British Settlement of Honduras, by Captain 
George Henderson, of the 5th West India regiment, pub- 
lished in London in 1809, the writer, in treating of that part 
of its natural history which relates to birds, gives the follow- 
ing particulars: — “Myriads of Swallows,” says he, “are 
also the occasional inhabitants of Honduras. The time of 
their residence is generally confined to the period of the 
rains, [that is, from October to February,] after which, they 
totally disappear. There is something remarkably curious 
and deserving of notice in the ascent of these birds. As 
soon as the dawn appears, they quit their place of rest, which 
is usually chosen amid the rushes of some watery savannah; 
