HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



49 



AN INQUIRY INTO THE ALLEGED HABIT OF HIBER- 

 NATION AMONG NORTH AMERICAN SWALLOWS. 



By CHARLES C. ABBOTT, M.D. 



[Continued from page 27.] 



N the reference 

 made by Kalm to 

 swallows, he spe- 

 cifies the barn- 

 swallow as being 

 that which he saw 

 on the 10th of 

 April (new style), 



I750, 



in 



a wet, 

 spiritless condi- 

 tion, sitting on 

 posts and planks. 

 Now, in this case, 

 we have a species 

 of swallow that 

 differs greatly in 

 its habits from the 

 preceding. While 

 sociable, and 

 willing that a 

 neighbour should 

 dwell near by, they are by no means gregarious ; and 

 it is often observed that but a single nest will be in 

 a building, however large it may be. Unlike the 

 bank or cliff swallows, they are quite contented to 

 seek their food, flitting over fields, and about the 

 buildings wherein are placed their nests. They are 

 not to be associated with water or its vicinity, any 

 more than with the driest stretches of dusty fields. 



How then, are we to explain the soaked appear- 

 ance of those seen by Kalm, sitting on posts and 

 planks ? I think the preceding sentence explains 

 it. He saw these birds first on the 10th of April, 

 and on the next, far greater numbers of them, sitting 

 on posts and planks. They had but reached their 

 destination — probably had ju3t completed a pro- 

 tracted flight of hundreds of miles ; and also, bear in 

 mind, they travel at night, and probably only at 

 night ; they were seen in the morning, as he ex- 

 pressly states. Thoroughly fagged, at the end of a 

 No. 219.— March 1883. 



long journey, and early in the morning, when all 

 else was dripping with the moisture of a rain-like 

 dew, would it not be strange indeed, if these new- 

 comers, like all animate and inanimate nature about 

 them, were not "as wet, as if they had been just 

 come out of the sea " ? 



But the barn swallow asks no lengthy holiday on 

 his arrival. He quickly recuperates, and the duties 

 of the hour are squarely met. If, during the summer, 

 his wanderings are less about water than land ; it is 

 to the water that he goes first, when ready to con- 

 struct his nest, or repair the structure of last summer. 

 By the water's edge, he carefully mixes the adhering 

 mud that forms the exterior of his house. Here, 

 we have a repetition of what I mentioned with 

 reference to the cliff swallows. Just at the time 

 when the supposed mud-encased swallow should 

 leave his submarine abode, and all bedraggled, wet 

 and worn, should be seen spreading himself in the 

 sun, and drying out, in readiness for a summer's 

 campaign — then do we really find the beautiful 

 barn swallows busy at the water's edge, and often 

 well wet through ; but, instead \ of having lately 

 emerged from the water, they have literally dropped 

 from the clouds. 



But if, for many and good reasons, we set aside, 

 as a misconception of the facts, the impression still 

 retained by many, that swallows hibernate in the 

 mud, at the bottoms of lakes and rivers — what have 

 we to say of the more reasonable proposition that 

 they hibernate, as do many animals in underground 

 retreats, in clefts of the rocks and even in hollow 

 trees ? Now, the one simple way to decide this 

 matter, is to find them hibernating, as they are said 

 to do. 



So far as my own experience extends, I have never 

 found a swallow hibernating in any position, nor do 

 I ever expect to ; and, furthermore, I believe nine- 

 tenths of all the accounts that are published of the 

 discovery of the hibernating swallows, could be 



