SIDE IvIGHTS ON BIRDS 



as a fact within his own knowledge that 

 " swallows are often drawn out (of the water) 

 in a kind of rolled-up lump, which, when about to 

 descend into the reeds after the beginning of 

 Autumn, have bound themselves together — 

 mouth to mouth, wing to wing, foot to foot." 

 Dr. Eagle Clarke reproduces a picture taken 

 direct from the Archbishop's work, which re- 

 presents two fishermen standing on the edge of 

 the ice, and drawing towards them a net contain- 

 ing a mixed catch of swallows and fishes. The 

 efiect of these unqualified affirmations, for other 

 writers came forward " to reckon themselves 

 among the eye-witnesses of this ' paradoxon ' 

 of natural history " may be traced in succeeding 

 literature. Men of the deepest learning and 

 most acute observation, including Linnaeus and 

 Cuvier, fell victims to the idea merely because it 

 was generally received. Later, the strong dog- 

 matic attitude of the Hon. Daines Barrington 

 caused even patient watchers, among whom 

 Gilbert White may be counted the first, to waver 

 and to well-nigh turn aside, although White 

 never gave his own authority to the commonly 

 held belief. It is to the credit of Francis 

 Willughby and George Edwards that they so 

 robustly endeavoured to stem the tide of super- 

 stition. 



Writing in 1678 Willughby says : — "To 

 us it seems more probable that they (the 

 swallows) fly away into hot countries. . . . 

 than that they lurk in hollow trees and holes in 

 rocks ... or lie in water under ice m 

 Northern countries." 



Nearly a century later Edwards is still more 

 emphatic, although the "immersion" theory 

 had, as yet, lost little of its hold. "It is 



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