lo THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



the old Hampshire naturahst, one of the most 

 practical, painstaking, and reliable observers of 

 Nature that ever lived, believed implicitly in the 

 habit, although, in spite of much careful investi- 

 gation, no direct proof of its truth was ever obtained 

 by him. Both Pennant and Barrington were also 

 supporters of the hibernation theory. It should, 

 however, be remarked that both White and Pennant 

 were cautious enough to say that the habit was by 

 no means universal with the Swallows and Swift. 

 In White's letter to Pennant, dated November 4th^ 

 1767, the following passage occurs: "I acquiesce 

 entirely in your opinion that, though most of the 

 Swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay 

 behind, and hide with us during the winter." 

 And again in his letter to Daines Barrington, dated 

 March 9th, 1772 : "From repeated accounts which 

 I meet with, I am more and more induced to believ^e 

 that many of the Swallow kind do not depart from 

 this island, but lay themselves up in holes and 

 caverns, and do, insect-like and bat-like, come forth 

 at mild times, and then retire again." After his 

 long life of assiduous observation. White sticks to 

 his honest belief in hibernation, and writes only 

 thirteen years before his death: "Summer birds 

 are, this cold and backward spring [1780], unusually 

 late ; I have seen but one Swallow yet. This con- 

 formity with the weather convinces me more and 

 more that they sleep in the winter." 



For the next fifty years, ornithological literature 

 is fairly well sprinkled with notes on the hibernation 



