Swallow 291 



of rocks, in sand-banks, in the holes of decayed trees, and 

 even at the bottom of the water in ponds, remaining 

 during the winter in a torpid state. 



"It is certain," said the Dutch naturalist Jonston; 

 1 ' that in hollow trees, lying many close together, they 

 preserve themselves by mutual heat." 



" In certain woods of Upper Germany," said another 

 authority, ' ' upon cutting up a rotten oak tree it was 

 found full of swallows." 



Unfortunately for the credibility of such accounts, 

 however, they all wear the aspect of fanciful conjecture, 

 rather than of a fact actually observed ; and though there 

 are accounts of similar circumstances purporting to be 

 from actual observation, they all appear suspicious when 

 strictly investigated. 



In our own county of Northumberland it has been 

 reported more than once; notably on the authority of the 

 late Lord Belhaven, ' ' that numbers of swallows have 

 been found in old dry walls and in sandhills at Morpeth, 

 and also near his late lordship's seat in East Lothian ; not 

 once only, but from year to year, and that when they 

 were exposed to the warmth of a fire they revived." 



Etmuller, Professor of Botany and Anatomy at 

 Leipsic, gives his testimony thus : — ' ' I remember," he 

 said, ' ' to have found more than a bushel measure would 

 hold of swallows closely clustered among the reeds of a 

 fish pond under the ice, all of them in appearance dead, 

 but the heart still pulsating." Against this I place the 

 experience of no less an authority than the late John 

 Hunter. 



' ' I have dissected many swallows, but found nothing in 

 them different from other birds as to the organs of respira- 

 tion. More than this, all the animals dissected by me, of 

 the class that sleep during winter, such as lizards, frogs; 

 &c, had a very different conformation as to these organs. 

 But I am firmly of opinion that terrestrial animals cannot 

 remain any long time under water without drowning." 



Independently of the established principles of phy- 

 siology, the matter has been experimentally tried, and it 



