168 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



gone by, they had flitted without fatigue, thoughtless of 

 the morrow. 



Such swallows I have seen, year after year, and it was 

 to them that Dr. Wallerius referred when he said that they 

 assembled on a reed " till they were all immersed, and 

 went to the bottom ; this being preceded by a dirge of a 

 quarter of an hour's length." 



Intelligible, therefore, as I consider the movements of 

 swallows to be, in so far as these might give the impression 

 of hibernation beneath the water, it is not by the same 

 observations that I have here recorded that the asserted 

 finding of torpid swallows during the winter, encased in 

 mud, can be explained. 



The mere finding of swallows in the mud is of itself 

 nothing strange, although the chances of their escaping 

 the attacks of the turtles and carnivorous fishes is very 

 small ; but to find them alive, in such positions, is a dif- 

 ferent matter, and at once recalls the probability of the 

 assertion that I have questioned, that it is physically and 

 physiologically feasible for swallows to lie dormant under 

 water. If so, some great constitutional change must take 

 place, for swallows, throughout the summer, are readily 

 drowned, if held for even a minute under water ; and, if 

 their plumage is well soaked by repeated immersions, they 

 are helpless until thoroughly dry again. The structure 

 of their feathers, furthermore, is wholly unlike that of 

 aquatic birds, and therefore they can not resist the per- 

 vading action of the water, as do the oily, close-set feath- 

 ers of the ducks and divers. 



Again, if torpid swallows are encased in mud, be- 

 neath a considerable depth of water, by what means can 

 the reviving influences of returning spring reach them ? 

 Whether in mid-winter or in genial April days, the mud 

 at the bottoms of our ponds is of nearly uniform temper- 



