MIGRATION. 287 
tried, and it has been found that swallows kept un- 
der water, with all due precautions, die in a few 
minutes. A window-swallow, which M. Montbeil- 
lard had in his study, escaped from the cage and fell 
into a pan of water, and it was only by the greatest 
care that he succeeded in restoring it to life: a few 
minutes’ longer immersion would probably have 
rendered his efforts hopeless. 
It may be added, that in Germany a reward of an 
equa! weight in silver was publicly offered to any 
one who should produce swallows found under wa- ° 
ter; but, as Frisch informs us, nobody ever claimed 
the money. 
A no less fanciful, but, as it appears to us, a more 
defensible opinion, was published in a scarce tract 
purporting to be written by ‘A Person of Learning 
and Piety,” who maintained, with no little ingenui- 
ty, that our migratory birds retire to the moon. He 
thinks that they are about two months in passing 
thither, and that, after they are arrived above tk 
lower regions of the air into the thin ether, they 
will have no occasion for food, as it will not be so 
apt to prey upon the spirits as our lower air. Even 
on our earth, he argues, bears will live upon their 
fat all the winter; and hence these birds, being very 
succulent and sanguine, may have their provisions 
laid up in their bodies for the voyage: or perhaps 
they are thrown into a state of somnolency by the 
motion arising from the mutual attraction of the 
earth and moon. 
“‘ Concerning the great distance,” he adds, “ be- 
tween the moon and the earth, if any shall still re- 
main unsatisfied, I leave only this to his considera- 
tion, whether there may not be some concrete bod- 
ies at much less distance than the moon, which may 
be the recess of these creatures, and serve for little 
else but their entertainment. 
““Thus we see many rocky islands in the sea that 
are of no other manifest use thah for seafowls to 
