C944 On the Torpidity of An m ah. 



arioiis, where tTiev have often been found in a soporose 

 state. These species are the hhiuirlo ripnria^ or sand- 

 swallow, commonly called, in the United States, hank- 

 svvallovi^ and Ixnik^ martin ; and the Ivruvdo pela^gia^ or 

 aculeattd svNallow, which we call cliirnncy-bird and chim- 

 ney-swallow. /There is no fact in ornithology leifer esta- 

 JiHshedy than the fact of' the occasional torpidity of these 

 two species of Hirundo. 



■' I sav hot;hing of the torpiditv of swallows ** under water.** 

 But I do not wholly deny this fact. And I take much 

 «pkaslirc in referring Dr. Reeve to a short paper, in the 

 Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. vi. 

 parti.,' relative to the discovery of a torpid swallow under 

 a qijarnity of mud and leaves. The author of that paper 

 was ai most'. worthy and respectable man; and a man so 

 religiously attached to truth, that I heheve him to ha\^e been 

 Incapable of tutering a falsehood; He was, n)oreover, a 

 man of nice observaticm, and of a philosophical turn of naind. 



I do not wisli to lirgc this part of the swallow's history 

 any J fupther. I have nothing to sav in support of the 

 ** swallow song.*' But when, in page 44, Dr. Reeve as- 

 serts, that no swallows '*' were ever found in all the rivers 

 and lakes of England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, or Switz- 

 erland, although fishermen are constantly employed on 

 these their supposed iiiding-places," does he mean to say, 

 that it has never been asserted by any of his countrymen, 

 that swallows have been found torpid, under water, in_ 

 England P Swallows are said to have been found torpid 

 ^' in the river Thames;" and the fact seems to have been 

 credited by some illustrious Endishmen in the 17th cen- 

 tury; and among others, if 1 do not mistake, by the im- 

 mortal William liarvey*. 



But I will take my leave of the swallows. — Since I pub- 

 lished my Fragments, I have obtained much information re- 

 lative to the torpidity of the humming-bird. I have hinted 

 at this subject, and have, indeed, most pointedly admitted 

 the fact, in my letter to Mons, la Cepede, published in 

 your Philosophical Magazine. I am now fully persuaded, 



that 



* In Dr. Birch'-= Tlist'^ry of the Rnyal .9of?>/y, vol. iv., there are some cu- 

 rious notices about swallows. The foliovvin.(» mav not be deemed wholly 

 unworthy of Dr. Rce\ e's att«jntion. " Sir John Hoskyns proposed, that h 

 n'^ight be duly examined, what becomes of the swallows, :>.nd in what state 

 they are during the winter. In answer to which Mr. Henshaw affirmed, 

 that the chancellor of Deumnrk told him, as an undoubted truth, that in 

 Iceland, there had been taken out of the ice swallows, which being afler- 

 ward»"brought into a warm stove- recovered and flew about the room." — 

 Mr. Henihaw observed, " that he hud nn account like the former concerning 

 •walloVfs froiu our waternicu, via. cliat they have found them in the river 



Thames ; 



