CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 
143 
sufficiently high and convenient for their accommodation. In 
no other situation with us are they observed at present to 
build. This circumstance naturally suggests the query, 
Where did these birds construct their nests before the arrival 
of Europeans in this country, when there were no such places 
for their accommodation? I would answer, Probably in the 
same situations in which they still continue to build in the 
remote regions of our western forests, where European 
improvements of this kind are scarcely to be found, namely, 
in the hollow of a tree, which in some cases has the nearest 
resemblance to their present choice, of any other. One of 
the first settlers in the state of Kentucky informed me, that 
he cut down a large hollow beech tree, which contained forty 
or fifty nests of the Chimney Swallow, most of which, by the 
fall of the tree, or by the weather, were lying at the bottom 
of the hollow ; but sufficient fragments remained, adhering to 
the sides of the tree, to enable him to number them. They 
appeared, he said, to be of many years’ standing. The pre- 
sent site which they have chosen must, however, hold out 
many more advantages than the former, since we see that, in 
the whole thickly settled parts of the United States, these 
birds have uniformly adopted this new convenience, not a 
single pair being observed to prefer the woods. Security 
from birds of prey and other animals — from storms that 
frequently overthrow the timber, and the numerous ready 
conveniencies which these new situations afford, are doubtless 
some of the advantages. The choice they have made certainly 
bespeaks something more than mere unreasoning instinct, and 
does honour to their discernment. 
The nest of this bird is of singular construction, being 
formed of very small twigs, fastened together with a strong 
adhesive glue or gum, which is secreted by two glands, one 
on each side of the hind head, and mixes with the saliva. 
With this glue, which becomes hard as the twigs themselves, 
the whole nest is thickly besmeared. The nest itself is small 
and shallow, and attached by one side or edge to the wall, and 
