SOME ANCIENT AND ANTIQUATED VIEAVS 7 



causes while concealed in their winter retreats, and 

 some of them may have been found in a more or less 

 featherless condition. 



With the writings of Pliny the ancient views on 

 miofration come to an end. The middle a^es in this, as 

 in many other cases, appear to have been a period of 

 intellectual stagnation, and it was not until the latter 

 half of the sixteenth century that interest in the subject 

 seems to have revived. 



In 1555, Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala, in 

 Sweden, published a work entitled Historia de Gcntibus 

 Septentrionalibus et Natura, wherein he alludes (lib. xix. 

 cap. 29, p. 673) to the seasonal disappearance of 

 Swallows as follows : — 



" Although memorable writers on many subjects 

 of natural history have related that Swallows change 

 their abode, that is, seek warmer countries on being 

 greatly pressed by winter, yet in Northern waters, 

 by the chance of a fisherman, Swallows are often 

 drawn out 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. Moreover, it has 

 been remarked that they at that season, their very sweet 

 song being finished, descend, and peacefully, after the 

 beginning of spring, fly out thence and reseek their old 

 nests or make new ones with their natural diligence. 

 But if that lump be drawn out by ignorant young men 

 (for old and expert fishermen put it back) and carried to 

 a warm place, the Swallows, loosened by the access of 

 heat, begin to fly about, but live only a short time, 

 giving proof that premature birth is to be guarded 

 against. It happens also in spring-time that the birds 



