APRIL. 109 



MIGRATION OP SWALLOWS. The subject of 

 the migration of the swallow tribe has been 

 agitated by naturalists from remote antiquity. 

 Many foolish notions upon it have been ad- 

 vanced, which are now very properly aban- 

 doned ; and the inquiry may be said to be set 

 at rest. One would wonder, indeed, when we 

 consider that, by the lightness of their bodies, 

 and their length and speed of wing, they are, 

 of all birds, the best calculated for migration, 

 how a doubt could have arisen on the subject. 

 But they come, it is said, with great secrecy, 

 and go with great secrecy ! So does the heavy 

 woodcock ; and yet no one ever doubted of 

 the migration of that plethoric bird, whose 

 usual flight is not many hundred yards. A 

 few are sometimes seen after the rest have 

 departed, on the breaking out of a few fine 

 days; and a few which, in spring appear first, 

 as suddenly disappear on the return of cold. 

 Can this be any wonder in birds of such velo- 

 city? Some however have been found in a 

 dormant state here. This is a fact ; but a fact 

 only of a few, and of rare occurrence; and 

 proves no more than that, when accident pre- 

 vents their departure, nature has given them 



