26 
HIRUNDO PELASGIA. 
great noise. In November, 1791, tbe top of this tree 
was blown down twenty feet below where tbe swallows 
entered. There has been no appearance of the swallows 
since. Upon cutting 1 down the remainder, an immense 
quantity of excrements, quills, and feathers were foun$, 
but no appearance or relics of any nests. 
“ Another of these swallow trees was at Bridport. 
The man who lived the nearest to it gave this account. 
The swallows were first observed to come out of the 
tree in the spring, about the time that the leaves first 
began to appear on the trees ; from that season they 
came out in the morning 1 about half an hour after 
sunrise. They rushed out like a stream, as big as the 
hole in the tree would admit, and ascended in a perpen- 
dicular line, until they were above the height of the 
adjacent trees ; then assumed a circular motion, per- 
forming their evolutions two or three times, but always 
in a larger circle, and then dispersed in every direction. 
A little before sun-down, they returned in immense 
numbers, forming several circular motions, and then 
descended like a stream into the hole, from whence 
they came out in the morning. About the middle of 
September, they were seen entering the tree for the 
last time. These birds were all of the species called 
the house or chimney swallow. The tree was a large 
hollow elm ; the hole at which they entered was about 
forty feet above the ground, and about nine inches in 
diameter. The swallows made their first appearance in 
the spring, and their last appearance in the fall, in the 
vicinity of this tree ; and the neighbouring inhabitants 
had no doubt but that the swallows continued in it 
during the winter. A few years ago, a hole was cut 
at the bottom of the tree ; from that time the swallows 
have been gradually forsaking the tree, and have now 
almost deserted it.” 
Though Mr Williams himself, as he informs us, is 
led to believe, from these, and some other particulars 
which he details, “ that the house swallow in this part 
of America generally resides during the winter in the 
hollow of trees ; and the ground swallows (bank swal- 
