CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 
25 
remarkable. In this situation they continue to be fed 
for perhaps a week or more. Nay, it is not uncommon 
for them voluntarily to leave the nest long- before they 
are able to fly, and to fix themselves on the wall, 
where they are fed until able to hunt for themselves. 
When these birds first arrive in spring 1 , and for a consi- 
derable time after, they associate together every evening 
in one general rendezvous ; those of a whole district 
roosting together. This place of repose, in the more 
unsettled parts of the country, is usually a large hollow 
tree, open at top ; trees of that kind, or swallow trees , 
as they are usually called, having been noticed iii 
various parts of the country, and generally believed to 
be the winter quarters of these birds, where, heaps upon 
heaps, they dozed away the winter in a state of torpi- 
dity. Here they have been seen on their resurrection 
in spring, and here they have again been remarked 
descending to their deathlike sleep in autumn. 
Among various accounts of these trees that might 
be quoted, the following are selected as bearing the 
marks of authenticity. “ At Middlebury, in this State,” 
says Mr Williams, History of Vermont , p. 116 , “ there 
was a large hollow elm, called by the people in the 
vicinity, the swallow tree. From a man who for several 
years lived within twenty rods of it, I procured this 
information. He always thought the swallows tarried 
in the tree through the winter, and avoided cutting it 
down on that account. About the first of May the 
swallows came out of it in large numbers, about the 
middle of the day, and soon returned. As the weather 
grew warmer, they came out in the morning, with a 
loud noise, or roar, and were soon dispersed. About 
half an hour before sun-down, they returned in millions, 
circulating two or three times round the tree, and then 
descending like a stream into a hole about sixty feet 
from the ground. It was customary for persons in the 
vicinity to visit this tree to observe the motions of these 
birds : and when any persons disturbed their operations, 
by striking violently against the tree with their axes, 
the swallows would rush out in millions, and with a 
