26 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



over the weedy waters. Others venturing less far, 

 caught, with what skill they could command, the 

 chilled and drooping flies that sought refuge from the 

 cold winds, in these safe, snug harbours in the cliff. 

 Indeed, this shelter-seeking flight of insect-life, that 

 now teems about these deserted nests of the departed 

 swallows, proves a veritable godsend to those poor 

 birds that, from whatsoever cause, are fated to 

 remain — a blessing, if it be one to prolong a joyless 

 existence during a few brief weeks in autumn. But 

 the importance of this sad phase of swallow-life as 

 bearing upon our subject remains to be stated. Not- 

 withstanding their weakness, the desire or instinct to 

 migrate still remains, and when more pressed than 

 usual by sudden accession of cold, or scarcity of 

 food, numbers of such as remain will collect, as of 

 yore, on the rushes and reeds about the water, and 

 often essay to commence their protracted flight 

 towards their winter haunts. Many straggling swal- 

 lows doubtless wander miles before finally succumb- 

 ing to the weakness of age, but never wandering far 

 from water ; migrating in their accustomed course, 

 which is always coastwise, down a river valley, when 

 they finally stop to rest. When their course is finished 

 they are found in the track of the hardy multitude 

 that have passed successfully onward ; and, yielding 

 to the severity of the increasing cold, they find watery 

 graves beneath the nodding plumes of the russet 

 grasses over which, in days gone by, they had flitted 

 without fatigue, thoughtless of the morrow. 



Such swallows I have seen, year after year, and 

 to them do I refer those that were said, by Dr. Wal- 

 lerius, to have assembled on a reed "till they were 

 all immersed, and went to the bottom ; this being 

 preceded by a dirge of a quarter of an hour's length." 



Explicable, therefore, as I consider the movements 

 of swallows to be, in so far as these might give the 

 impression of hibernation beneath the water, it is 

 not by the same observations that I have here re- 

 corded, that the asserted finding of torpid swallows, 

 during the winter encased in mud, can be explained. 



The mere finding of swallows in the mud, is, of 

 itself, nothing strange, although the chances of their 

 escaping the attacks of the turtles and carnivorous 

 fishes, is very small ; but to find them alive, in such 

 positions, is a different matter, and at once recalls 

 the probability of the assertion that I have ques- 

 tioned, that it is physically and physiologically 

 feasible for swallows to lie dormant under water. 

 If so, some great constitutional change must take 

 place, for swallows, throughout the summer, are 

 readily drowned, if held for even a minute under 

 water ; and if their plumage is well soaked by re- 

 peated immersions, they are helpless, until thoroughly 

 dry again. The structure of their feathers, further- 

 more, is wholly unlike that of aquatic birds, and 

 therefore cannot resist the pervading action of the 

 water, as do the oily, close-set feathers of the ducks 

 and divers. 



Again, if torpid swallows are encased in mud, 

 beneath a considerable depth of water, by what 

 means can the reviving influence of returning spring 

 influence them ? Whether warm or cold, mid-winter 

 or genial April days, the mud at the bottoms of our 

 ponds is of nearly uniform temperature, and certainly 

 does not vary so much, as to start, by added warmth, 

 the life-pulses of swallows that for five or six long 

 months have ceased to beat ; and why should these 

 unfortunates remain thus beneath chilled and often 

 ice-locked waters, when in the mellow sunshine 

 above it, other and wiser swallows of their kind flit 

 and twitter as of yore, having happily chosen 

 migration rather than submergence ? 



But the testimony on this point is too explicit to 

 warrant one's belief that these witnesses could have 

 been in error. To show how readily people can be 

 mistaken, let me state a case : — 



A. B. has testified on oath as follows : " Early 

 in April, 1836, as I was passing on foot down the 

 Bordentown road, near the drawbridge, I heard a 

 loud hissing in the bushes at my left, and turning my 

 head, saw a large, checkered, black and white snake. 

 It held its head well up, and darted its tongue at me. 

 I was a good deal frightened and turned and ran, as 

 I had heard of hoop-snakes, and found I was chased 

 by this snake and that it was one. Luckily, I was 

 running down hill, and covered the ground pretty 

 lively. Near the bridge, I jumped behind a cedar 

 tree, and the snake passed me. It had its tail in its 

 mouth, and rolled along like a child's hoop, only a 

 great deal faster. It turned off at the creek, and 

 rolled into Crosswick's Creek, and then uncoiled, 

 and swam like any other snake." 



Now in this statement, made in good faith by a 

 conscientious man,; there is a curious admixture of 

 truth and misconception. Mr. A. B. admits that he 

 has heard of hoop-snakes, and as they are reputed 

 to be more deadly than veritable rattle-snakes or 

 copper-heads, it is very natural for such a person to 

 see, not simply think he sees, a snake take its tail in 

 its mouth and roll, hoop-like, down the sandy road. 

 This impression is always the more vivid, when the 

 snake happens to take the [same direction in which 

 the poor frightened person may happen to flee. Now, 

 if people are taught to expect to encounter any given 

 form of dangerous animal, in any neighbourhood, 

 when any creature having the similitude of this 

 mythical foe to humanity is seen, it is promptly 

 endowed, by the frightened unfortunate, with all 

 these direful attributes, and his distorted vision 

 converts into horrible monstrosities, and detects 

 impossible capers on the part of, a harmless and 

 inoffensive creature. 



Now, I have taken the trouble to question a certain 

 class of people concerning this hoop-snake, and I 

 find it is firmly believed in by hundreds, who affirm 

 that they, their parents, or some one of their friends 

 had seen them, been chased by them, or had indirectly 



