PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 43 



placed in ice-houses and have revived after two or 

 three years exposure to and experience of the low 

 temperature. 



Hibernation, as I have already mentioned, is generally 

 understood as passing the winter in a state of torpor — a 

 mistake arising from a derivation of the word from the 

 J .itin — but it has not, strictly speaking, this restricted 

 meaning as applied to animals. The state of hil)ernation 

 is not the same thing as, or any condition of, a state of 

 torpor. 



Hibernation is a provision of nature for the preservation 

 of life, especially for that of the insectivora, when by 

 reason of seasonal change their sources of daily food 

 supply are necessarily unprocurable. This, e.g., is the 

 case wnth the bat, when spring and summer give place to 

 winter, and insects as a rule disappear. 



The very observant author of the " Natural History of 

 Selborne" hardly, if at all, makes good his opinion that 

 swallows hibernate by any reliable facts, in December, 

 1 773' writing to Harrington, he says : " We make great 

 " enquiries concerning the withdrawal of the swallow 

 " kind, without examining into the causes, why this tribe 

 " is never to be seen in winter. The hirundines, if they 

 " please, are certainly capable of migration, and yet no 

 " doubt are often found in a torpid state." The sand 

 martin makes a hole, round and regular, in sand or fine 

 gravel, generally straight, wath a slope upwards towards 

 the opening, and about two feet distant from the entrance. 

 At the end of this, in a little globular chamber, the l)ird 

 builds its nest, consisting of moss, fine grasses, and 

 feathers, which one would think would be, if anywhere, a 

 desirable place in which to spend the winter. But says 

 Gilbert White, speaking of this species : " These birds do 

 " not make use of their caverns by way of hibernacula as 

 " might be expected ; since banks have been dug out 

 "with care in the winter, when nothing was found but 



