PROCIZEDINGS 01- THE CO'l' THSWOLD CLUB 45 



Occasional late appearances of these birds prove really 

 nothing as regards their hiljernation. Their power of 

 accumulating even a modicum of food within them must 

 be extremely limited, and I think we are quite safe in saving 

 that no species of hirundines hibernate (in the sense of 

 the word as used in this paper) in this or as a matter of 

 fact in any other country. (I know I have \'on Humboldt 

 against me.) They fly to fresh fields, and a more genial 

 climate, and all tales of their surviving the winter in this 

 country are (me judice) not worthy of belief. 



The bat goes to sleep, and its usual food is, for a time, 

 not a necessity of its existence, and even if the weather 

 be abnormally mild we cannot find that it leaves its 

 shelter until it has been there for a considerable time. 



To what extent hibernation extends in the animal 

 world has not been and cannot be accurately ascertained. 

 The enquiry into the subject is a very difficult one, and 

 we can only draw our conclusions from certain plain and 

 evident facts, leaving many more which are beyond our 

 powers of investigation. The bat, the badger, the hedge- 

 hog, and the dormouse amongst the mammalia are the 

 most easily observed examples in our country of this 

 singular and strange physiological condition, and this 

 condition presents no easy problem for naturalists to 

 solve ; and it may be by reason thereof, the literature 

 bearing on the subject is very scanty, and some even of 

 that, not altogether reliable. 



What is hibernation, from a physiological jjoint of 

 view } This question is the root of the whole matter 

 and embraces many considerations of much interest, for it 

 is evident that any animal in a state of hibernation, i.e., of 

 more or less suspended action of its ordinarv functions is, 

 so far, in an abnormal condition. How then does it 

 continue to exist ? 



Now, we are told by physiologists that the quantity of 

 respiration is inversely as the degree of irritability of the 



