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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[May 1, 1867. 



When Cowper wrote in his " Invitation into the 

 Country," addressed to the Rev. Mr. Newton, the 

 lines — 



" The swallows in their torpid state 



Compose their useless wing, 

 And bees in hives as idly wait 

 The call of early spring," 



he undoubtedly expressed an opinion which has 

 been held by all nations'from the remotest antiquity. 

 The Jesuit missionary Hue quotes an old Chinese 

 naturalist named Luchi to this effect : " The 

 ancients thought that swallows changed their 

 climate, but it is difficult to imagine how they 

 should have done so, since no one has ever seen 

 them set out in the direction of southern countries, 

 nor proceed in troops, like the migratory birds that 

 come every year from Tartary, and return thither in 

 the spring. These draw themselves up into regular 

 armies, and their passage lasts several days ; whilst 

 the swallows when they disappear from one pro- 

 vince are not seen in any greater numbers, in the 

 other, even in the provinces nearest the sea ;" and 

 he concludes by saying that the swallows do not 

 emigrate, but remain always about the same 

 country, and during the winter merely hide them- 

 selves in holes and caverns. The naturalist 

 Spallanzani saw swallows in October on the 

 island of Lipari (near Sicily), and was told that 

 when a warm south wind blew, they were frequently 

 seen skimming about the streets. He thence 

 concluded that the swallows did not all go over to 

 Africa, but remained in the island, issuing from 

 their warm retreats in quest of food on hot days. 

 The Dutch naturalist Jonston says, " It is certain 

 that in hollow trees, lying many close together, they 

 (the swallows) preserve themselves by mutual 

 warmth ;" and the old ornithologists Albertus 

 Magnus, Gaspar Heldelin, Augustine Niphus, and 

 others held this idea also. In England, White of 

 Selborne held the hybernation of swallows as an 

 indisputable fact, and the Rev. W. T. Bree, who 

 turned his attention to the subject, corroborated 

 him. He says, after reviewing the circumstances 

 of the case, " However far they may fall short of 

 positive proof, they undoubtedly afford much pro- 

 bability to White's opinion, that the hirundines do 

 not all leave this island in winter." Linnseus 

 expressly asserts that "the chimney-swallow, 

 together with the window-swallow, demerges, and 

 in spring emerges." Baron Cuvier asserts of the 

 bank-swallow as " well authenticated, that it falls 

 into a lethargic state during winter, and even that 

 it passes that season at the bottom of marshy 

 waters." The objections to this theory of the 

 torpidity of swallows are numerous ; probably the 

 most weighty are, firstly, that they are physiologi- 

 cally unsuited for the process, and, secondly, that 

 experiments have failed to prove their powers of 

 endurance either of cold, hunger, or submersion. 



With regard to the first objection, it may be replied 

 that in the bat, dormouse, bear, and other hy- 

 bernating animals there are no such structural 

 peculiarities- as would lead us [to expect them to 

 become torpid in winter ; and with regard to the 

 second, it must be remembered that it is impossible 

 for us to simulate the exact conditions by which 

 nature induces torpidity, and that in all probability 

 if these experiments had been tried upon the bear 

 or other creatures known to become torpid, they 

 would have resulted in failure, and yet not have 

 disproved the facts of the case. 



I now come to the consideration of the all-im- 

 portant question, Have swallows ever been dis- 

 covered during winter in this state by competent 

 witnesses ? This, Mr. Gould, Professor Owen, and 

 others who discredit the old theory deny ; and it is 

 but just to confess that there is much difficulty in 

 getting reliable evidence about it. To recur to 

 China, M. Hue tells us : " It is recorded in the 

 annals of China that the people being overwhelmed 

 by the misfortunes that afflicted them during the 

 reign of the Emperor Ngan-ty, more than a thousand 

 families deserted their villages, and went to seek a 

 refuge in the wildest mountain solitudes, in order 

 to escape the horrors of insurrection and famine. 

 As there were no vegetable crops, they were re- 

 duced to feed on rats and swallows, which they 

 found collected in masses in the caverns and hol- 

 lows of the rocks." Another historian reports an 

 analogous fact : " The Emperor Yang-ty having 

 ordered some repairs on the banks of the Yellow 

 River, there were found immense multitudes of 

 swallows collected in the holes and caves of the 

 rocks, and wherever the shore was steep and 

 solitary." These extracts are taken from a work 

 entitled "The Chinese Empire," by M. Hue. 



In one of Knight's Educational Series the 

 following is recorded: "The Hon. Dames Bar- 

 rington told Mr. Pennant, on the authority of Lord 

 Belhaven, that numbers of swallows had been found 

 in old dry walls and in sandhills near his lordship's 

 seat in East Lothian ; not once only, but from 

 year to year ; and that when they were exposed to 

 the warmth of the fire they revived. We have also, 

 he adds, heard of the same annual discoveries near 

 Morpeth, in Northumberland, but cannot speak of 

 them with the same assurance as the two former ; 

 neither in these instances are we certain of the par- 

 ticular species. In other places," he continues, ".they 

 have been found, but I will not vouch for the truth 

 of it ; as, first, in a decayed hollow tree that was 

 cut down near Dolgelly, in Merionethshire ; secondly, 

 in a cliff near Whitby, in Yorkshire, 'where, in 

 digging out a fox, whole bushels of swallows were 

 found in a torpid condition ; thirdly, the Rev. Mr. 

 Conway, of Lychton, Flintshire, a few years ago, 

 between All Saints and Christmas, on looking down 

 an old lead mine in that country, observed numbers 



