IIARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



5* 



damper. They were all perfectly well and compara- 

 tively vigorous. On being placed upon the floor of 

 the room, they soon recovered their full senses, and 

 after a feeble flight about the room, passed quickly 

 through an open window and were seen no more. 

 The great bulk of the chimney swallows apparently 

 departed by the 25th of October of that year. I certainly 

 saw none later ; yet fifty-five days after that date, 

 seven are found, in fine health and strength, snugly 

 stowed away in a stove pipe. It is fair to suppose 

 that they had lived for this length of time without 

 food. If so, have we any right to limit the length of 

 time that they may thus remain in a semi-torpid or 

 hibernating condition ? To maintain that such a 

 question is reasonable, is not an attempt to carry 

 water upon both shoulders ; for swallows' hibernation 

 in sheltered places, surrounded by the atmosphere, is 

 vastly different from lying in mud at the bottom of a 

 lake or the ocean. In a second somewhat similar 

 instance that has come to my knowledge, a number 

 of these birds were found in a hollow sycamore which 

 was cut down in the month of February. These 

 birds were dead when I saw them, and I was assured 

 by the wood-cutter that they were stiff and cold when 

 he took them from the tree. They were not frozen, 

 however, and the appearance, on dissection, was such 

 as to lead to the belief that they had died but very 

 recently ; certainly before the tree was cut down, 

 but not long previously. There was no decomposi- 

 tion ; some trace of fatty tissue, and the blood liquid ; 

 the bowels and stomach empty, but moist, soft, and 

 flexible. 



In this case, happening during a remarkably mild 

 winter, that of 1879-80, it is possible that swallows 

 might survive in such quarters, when a season of 

 ordinary severity would destroy them. 



It is claimed that we do not know where the 

 winter haunts of these birds are ; if so, may it not 

 be that, like the almost as abundant bats, these 

 birds congregate in caves or hollow trees ? But if we 

 grant this much, these hibernating places are not to 

 be looked for in New England or the Middle States, 

 but so far south as to be beyond the reach of the 

 severest frosts of our winters. Certainly, did they 

 hibernate with us, in the same manner as the bats, 

 their hiding-places would have been brought to light 

 oftener than even such instances as I have related, 

 have been noticed. As a thousand or more may 

 be found in one chimney during summer, it is fair 

 to presume that, in hibernating, equal numbers 

 would then also be congregated. No such swallow 

 bonanza is yet upon record. On the other hand, if 

 chimney swallows are thus disposed of during winter, 

 it becomes easy to account for stragglers that, for 

 some unknown reasons, have not joined the innumer- 

 able ranks of their fellows in their southern flight ; 

 but which, in lieu of this, have essayed to brave the 

 winter by seeking such shelter, in protected places, as 

 they may find. That such stragglers can survive an 



ordinary winter has not been shown — cannot be, until 

 they are taken in full vigour from their hiding- 

 places, at the close of the season. To find living 

 swallows in a cave, tree, or chimney in February 

 or March, would be a decisive matter ; to find such 

 birds before New Year's Day, does not show that they 

 would be able to remain in health the season through, 

 and reappear in full vigour in March or April. 



So far, at least, as my own observations extend, 

 the chimney swallow is practically a migratory bird, 

 so far as New Jersey is concerned. In what manner 

 the winter is spent beyond our boundaries, I cannot 

 say ; but offer such trivial instances as I have related, 

 as possibly confirmatory of the belief on the part of 

 many, that, like bats, they strictly hibernate. It 

 remains as yet, however, an open question ; but to 

 discover that such was really true of them, would 

 have little bearing upon such a strange belief as that 

 true swallows hibernate in mud. 



What is still needed is a system of the most care- 

 ful observations, made without a trace of preconceived 

 opinions. What child but thinks that our flying 

 squirrels really fly, instead of sail through the air ! 

 Too often ignorant ourselves, we give illusive answers 

 to our children, and many errors are thus perpetuated 

 by the world at large, which a little patient observa- 

 tion might readily have checked. On the other hand, 

 when we affect to become observers, how often do 

 we rashly jump at conclusions, based upon deceptive 

 appearances ! Certainly, in my own brief experience, 

 I can only testify to the apparent reality of a bird, 

 less common than swallows, but superabundant in 

 New Jersey, hibernating in mud. I refer to the 

 little rail, or sora {Porzana Carolinensis). Early in 

 August, with all the regularity of the passing seasons, 

 these birds suddenly appear in vast numbers, in the 

 meadows skirting the Delaware river. Now ornith- 

 ologists know well enough, that the rail is strictly 

 migratory ; and I have yet 'to see the first gunner, 

 or other person familiar with our meadows, who ever 

 saw a rail-bird earlier than in July, and seldom then. 

 Nevertheless they are here weeks prior to that 

 month, but so closely do they keep themselves to the 

 muddy, weed-grown marshes, that their detection is 

 well-nigh impracticable. Of course, there must be 

 taken into consideration the fact that, prior to the 

 middle of August, they are not sought for ; but then, 

 and until after frost, thousands are killed by the 

 gunners. Now, the gunners, the farmers, and those 

 whose business or inclination takes them to these 

 marshes, know the rail-birds as a suddenly acquired 

 feature of these marshes, and if they see them, see 

 them running lightly over the mud that skirts the 

 ditches in our marshy meadows. They are as much 

 a feature of such localities as frogs ; and, like those, 

 they are extremely sensitive to frost. It is not 

 strange, perhaps, that the impression of hibernation 

 should have been entertained with reference to this 

 bird j but it must be borne in mind, that mere sudden 



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