Naturalist.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1260, 27 January 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

Naturalist.

SWALLOWS BY MILLIONS. For several years past, at about this time in the late summer season or early autumn, there have commonly appeared brief items in the Westerly correspondence of Rhode Island newspapers concerning the annual gathering of swallows in that town. These items have seldom done more than to state the fact of the bird’s appearance, or, possibly, to give a short sketch of their doings. Persons who have noticed the items at all, or given any thought to them, have, from the meagre statements given, considered the occurrence of no special importance or interest, but simply in accordance with the well-known custom of swallows to flock in groups before their annual departure for the South; and when, occasionally, a statement has been made that the swallows annually flocking to Westerly could be numbered by millions it was thought to be merely the exaggeration of some enthusiastic correspondent. Only those who have visited the place in proper season have any idea of how much these stories meant. Upon an inspection their number seemed legion. One could think of nothing but a snow storm with black flakes. From the plainest outlines of the lowest flying birds, to the merest black specks of the most aspiring wanderers, the picture was that of constantly moving, intermingling millions of little winged creatures. It was a sight never to be forgotten. At times, no two seemed to be flying in >the same direction, though, as a whole, the vast company would sway from side to side above the grove. Again, a group of hundreds would take a common direction, circling round the inner circumference of the general company, now descending towards the tree tops with a symmetrical swoop, or rising in the air until almost lost to view. Then they would return to the common crowd and resume their separate courses as before. By the mildest and most conservative estimate which the reporter could make, after talking with several who observed the birds daily and could best judge of their numbers, he was forced to admit that there were at least 3,000,000 of them. To say that the cubic space occupied by the birds in this nightly flying to and fro, after all have gathered, does not exceed 590 feet dimensions each way; and to believe that, compressed into this space in their closer flight the birds would not exceed twenty-five in each 1000 cubic feet of space (ten feet each way), is to make estimates which all who have seen the birds will say are altogether too far within bounds. And yet this estimate would give at least 3,125,000 birds.— Providence Preus,