CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 
81 
[September,] the birds quite disappeared; since which 
I have not observed a single individual. Though I was 
not so fortunate as to be present at their general 
assembly and council when they concluded to take their 
departure, nor did I see them commence their flight, 
yet I am fully persuaded that none of them remain in 
any of our chimneys here. I have had access to Ross’s 
chimney where they last resorted, and could see the 
lights out from bottom to top, without the least vestige 
or appearance of any birds. Mary Ross also informed 
me, that they have had their chimneys swept previous 
to their making fires, and, though late in autumn, no 
birds have been found there. Chimneys, also, which 
have not been used, have been ascended by sweeps in 
the winter without discovering any. Indeed, all of 
them are swept every fall and winter, and I have never 
heard of the swallows being found in either a dead, 
living, or torpid state. As to the court-house, it has 
been occupied as a place of worship two or three times 
a-week for several weeks past, and at those times there 
has been fire in the stoves, the pipes of them both 
going into the chimney, which is shut up at bottom by 
brick work : and, as the birds had forsaken that place, 
it remains pretty certain that they did not return 
there ; and, if they did, the smoke, I think, would be 
deleterious to their existence, especially as I never 
knew them to resort to kitchen chimneys where fire 
was kept in the summer. I think I have noticed them 
enter such chimneys for the purpose of exploring ; but 
I have also noticed that they immediately ascended, and 
went off, on finding fire and smoke.” 
The chimney swallow is easily distinguished in air 
from the rest of its tribe here, by its long wings, its 
short body, the quick and slight vibrations of its wings, 
and its wide unexpected diving rapidity of flight ; 
shooting swiftly in various directions without any 
apparent motion of the wings, and uttering the sounds 
tsip tsip tsip tsee tsee in a hurried manner. In roost- 
ing, the thorny extremities of its tail are thrown in for 
its support. It is never seen to alight but in hollow 
