yS ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. L 



our country were thofe drawn torpid out of water, 

 and from beneath ice, I imagined they might be- 

 come torpid and motionlefs if fubjedled to the 

 fame degree of cold, and thought of expofmg 

 fome to the temperature of an ice-houfe, gradu- 

 ally bringing them from warmer atmofpheres, as 

 of a cave or an apartment adjoining to the ice- 

 houfe ; for, during the month of Auguft, to carry 

 them all at once to fuch cold might be too fud- 

 den a change. But all the fwallows in the ad- 

 joining chamber died in three hours, without my 

 being able to difcover whether they had firft 

 fallen into a lethargy. The cold was not great, 

 as the thermometer flood at 43 ° . Other fwal- 

 lows had the fame fate. Whence I may conclude, 

 that the fwallows found in water or under ice 

 are of a fpecies fpecifically different from ours, 

 becaufe they perifli at a fmall degree of cold (i). 



This 



(i) Since the author wrote this, he made the following 

 experiments on fwallows, which may tend in fome mea- 

 fure to elucidate the natural hiftory of thefe birds, which 

 has hitherto been fo obfcure. 



* Auguft 23. 1792, the thermometer being at 76°, four 

 houfe fwallows, (hirundo domeftica) confined in a glafs 

 vefTel, were buried in fnow. In an hour, they had not 

 fuffered in the leaft, and flew about the apartment. They 

 were returned to the vefTel, and the cold increafed. In 



124- 



