4H swallows. Class IL 



times fall in plentiful fhowers on Norway and the 

 neighboring countries *. 



Some of our own countrymen have given credit 

 to the fubmerfion of fwallows f ; and Klein patro- 

 nifes the dodtrine flrongly, giving the following 

 hiftory of their manner of retiring, which he re- 

 ceived from fome countrymen and others. They 

 afferted, that fometimes the fwallows aflembled in 

 numbers on a reed, till it broke and funk with them 

 to the bottom •, and their immerfion was preluded 

 by a dirge of a quarter of an hour's length. That 

 others would unite in laying hold of a ftraw 

 with their bills, and fo plunge down in fociety. 

 Others again would form a large mafs, by cling- 

 ing together with their feet, and fo commit them- 

 felves to the deep J. 



Such are the relations given by thofe that are 

 fond of this opinion, and though delivered with- 

 out exaggeration, muft provoke a fmile. They 

 afTign not the fmallefl reafon to account for thefe 

 birds being able to endure fo long a fubmerfion 

 without being fuffocated, or without decaying, in 

 an element fo unnatural to fo delicate a bird; 



* Gefner Icon. An, loo. 



t Derham's Phyf. TheoL 340. 349. HiUrop's Traas, II. 

 32. 



X Klein hiji, a-v, 205, 206. Ekmarck migr. av. Amaen. 

 acad. IV. 589. 



"when 



