WINTER WOKK. 69 



the adjacent fields now in search of food, and at 

 once attracts notice by the hood it wears. Where 

 does it raise its family ? does it ever breed in Eng- 

 land ? Why does it come here at all ? 



Migration is almost as wonderful as hybematiou. 

 Before it was so well established a fact as it is in the 

 present day, hibernation was much more extensively 

 allowed. The Swallow tribe in particular attracted 

 most notice, as was but natural, and they were all 

 firmly believed to spend the winter in this country, 

 hidden up in caves and rock crevices, old buildings 

 and places similar to those where we find the bats ; 

 some thought even in the bottom of lakes and rivers 

 buried in the mud. Dr. Johnson in his usual dog- 

 matic style, once remarked in the course of 

 conversation " Swallows certainly sleep all the 

 winter, a number of them conglobulate together by 

 flying round and round, and then all in a heap 

 throw themselves under water and lie in the bed of 

 a river." And Gilbert White of Selborne, could 

 never bring himself to totally disbelieve in their 

 hybemation. Nor has the belief died out in the 

 present day, for there was a discussion about it in 

 the pages of " Science Gossip " only a few months 

 ago. But this is rather digressing. 



There is often much talk about the " mysterious " 

 instinct which guides birds in their migrations. I 

 confess I can see little mystery in it, not nearly so 

 much as in hybemation. 



Disbelieving totally, as I do, in what is commonly 

 called the " instinct " of the lower animals, and be- 

 lieving that the whole animal creation possesses 

 pretty well the same' faculties and reasoning powers 



