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 

 equal 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 the 

 lower regions of the air into the thin aether, 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 moonw 



" 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 than for seafowls to 



