THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 119 
The Chimney Swallows, when performing their 
migrations, often assemble to the number of several 
thousands, and take possession of the trunk of some 
venerable tree which has been hollowed out either 
by fire or by natural decay. Here they will continue 
to roost for many nights in succession before dis- 
persing to the various parts of the country where 
they are accustomed to breed. Audubon thus de- 
scribes a rendezvous of this kind which was tenanted 
by about 8000 or 9000 Swallows at one time : 
“ 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 in- 
formed 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 
Night Hawks. The true place of the Swallows is not in the 
present Chapter, but near the Tanagers, in Chapter IV. They 
belong to the singing division (Oscines) of the order Pas- 
seres. E. D. C. 
