160 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



Mr. Forster is led to conclude that in countries as cold as 

 Sweden " swallows immerse in the sea, in lakes and rivers, 

 and remain in a torpid state, under ice, during winter ; " 

 and that some English swallows, and some in Germany, 

 "retire into clefts and holes in rocks," while in Spain, 

 Italy, and France, that they are strictly migratory birds. 



That our American swallows are strictly migratory 

 birds, I have no doubt ; and it would never have occurred 

 to me to consider the subject of their hibernation other 

 than a mere fancy, had not an excellent American orni- 

 thologist stated recently that this alleged submarine hiber- 

 nation was physically and physiologically feasible. This 

 assertion is too hasty, and is not warranted by known laws 

 of life. Having been made, however, and a semi-assent 

 to the alleged habit of hibernation being thus given by 

 an authority in ornithological science, it behooves the 

 naturalist to determine how great an amount of truth 

 there is in the statements, so frequently and forcibly made, 

 of the persons claiming to have witnessed actions on the 

 part of swallows, indicative of hibernation commenced, 

 and of the discovery of swallows in conditions indicative 

 of hibernation in progress. 



Believing this supposed habit to be really a miscon- 

 ception of movements on the part of swallows, to be lik- 

 ened in some measure to the rolling habit of the mythical 

 hoop-snake, I have taken every available opportunity, 

 since 1878, to observe the movements of the several spe- 

 cies of swallows that frequent my neighborhood, with 

 the hope of determining what habits obtained among 

 them that might possibly have given rise to the world- 

 wide impression that swallows not only hibernate but 

 even deliberately bury themselves in mud at the bottoms 

 of lakes and rivers. 



The species of swallow that I have had opportunity 



