128 A. S. VEREY — OBSEEVATION OF SAVALLOWS. 



stroke has upset the equilibrium of the delicate fabric, and yonder 

 goes the swallow, oscillating violently from side to side, the lateral 

 motion, however, being at once checked by the elongate feather 

 on one side. By this sudden arrest the body of the bird is sent 

 rebounding upon the opposite feather, only in turn to be stopped 

 by it ; and thus the bird continues swaying fi'om side to side, until, 

 the disturbance gradually subsiding, equilibrium is restored. And 

 this, I think, may be an explanation of what would otherwise 

 appear strange to us, for the swallow is the only one of the family 

 possessed of this peculiar tail. 



A fascinating question is : Do swallows hibernate ? But I must 

 touch upon it only briefly. The belief that they do so is, I think, 

 more fiiTaly held in America than in our own country. 



Certain it is, that for some time after the departure of the 

 main body of swallows, barely-fledged young birds are commonly 

 to be seen, and these again as suddenly disappear. What becomes 

 of them? It is difiicult to suppose that they can in any way 

 fit themselves in time for a supplementary migration, for their 

 insect food is daily becoming scarcer, and, on the other hand, 

 to argue on insufficient data that they must all die, is to pay 

 no very high compliment to the prudence and foresight of nature. 

 The difficulty which has always confronted us is that no bird, 

 so far as I am aware, has ever been found in a state of hibernation. 

 But I will mention a fact that is very helpful to us, for indeed it 

 takes us very far on the way. 



My old and very dear fiiend, the late Dr. Henry Thornton 

 "Wharton, used often to relate to me how well he recollected that, 

 ■when a boy at Mitcham Rectory, as he stood one Chi-istmas Day in 

 a room but seldom used, in which a fire had just been lighted, 

 he saw two swallows in a semi-torpid condition come tumbling 

 down the chimney. 



In the early morning of Lord Mayor's Day, in the year 1878, 

 I saw from the can'iage of a train stopping at Godalming Station, 

 six or seven martins. A bright, cheerful sun had risen upon 

 a cold, frosty morning, and the birds were endeavouring to gain 

 some warmth from it ; poor benumbed things, very feeble in their 

 flight and veiy unlike the swallows of summertime, yet there they 

 were unmistakably. 



We can only hope to elucidate the mystery by patient wanderings 

 in Swallowland. 



