THE NIGHTJAR AND THE SWALLOW. 53 
that the old stories as to the hibernation of these 
birds were not altogether false. For, as I need 
scarcely remind my readers, it was for long con- 
sidered that the swallow and its relations passed 
the winter months in clusters beneath the surface of 
a pond or stream, there remaining in a state of torpor 
until the warmth of spring roused them from their 
long slumber, and lured them back to active life. 
The old authors, indeed, were very positive upon 
the subject, and even went so far as to offer 
evidence of thé truth ‘of their theory. Here is 
the quaint account of a writer in the seventeenth 
century :— 
‘One here (Konigsberg) in his net drew up a 
company or heape of swallows as big as a bushel, 
fastened by the legs and bills in one, which, being 
carried to their stoves, quickened and flew, and 
coming again in the cold air, dyed.” } 
The presence of an occasional swallow or two at 
unseasonable times can be far more plausibly ex- 
plained. The bird, hike many others, is double- 
brooded, and sometimes brings up even as many as 
three families in the course of a single season. Now, 
there can be but a short interval between the time 
that the members of the last of these broods are 
fledged and that when the birds are constrained by 
the rapid approach of winter to leave this country 
for a warmer climate. And, in the great majority of 
cases, the migratory instinct predominates over the 
1 “ Travels of Master George Boukely,” cévca 1620. 
