VIEWS ON MIGRATION. 13 



and that when he went up to the tree the bird was 

 already so comatose that he caught it by the hand. 

 This, however, may not havx been connected with 

 any hibernating habit, as a similar circumstance has 

 twice occurred to myself with two very different 

 species. One was a Greenfinch, and the other was 

 a Nuthatch. I saw a small flight of Green Linnets 

 fly into a bush on the shore at San Remo, and on 

 going up to the bush, I found one of them ap- 

 parently asleep or paralyzed, and caught it with 

 the hand. My son kept it tame for years, and the 

 bird was quite w^ell. The Nuthatch I saw in a 

 similar condition, hanging head downwards from 

 a twig in my garden in London. This bird I also 

 caught in my hand, and put it into a cage. But 

 its condition was so transient that it pecked its 

 way out of the bottom of the cage the same night, 

 and escaped. The Hoopoe story, therefore, may 

 have nothing to do with hibernation, although Sir 

 John did so interpret it. But the story of the 

 dormant Swallows in the holes of a mud-bank 

 would seem to be one of true hibernation, and it 

 is diflicult to imagine that his memory could have 

 been deceived in such a matter. I believe the still- 

 living Sir Henry Rawlinson, the celebrated Oriental 

 scholar, was also present at the time. I think it 

 clear, howev^er, that migration is the almost universal 

 rule with birds. Hibernation must be a very 

 exceptional circumstance." 



In the Ornithologisches Centralhlatt for May ist, 

 1877, Rohweder certifies to the accuracy of the 



