SWALLOWS. 37 



As to swallows Qiirundines rusticce) being found in a torpid 

 state during the winter, in the Isle of Wight, or any part 

 of this country, I never heard any such account worth 

 attending to. But a clergyman, of an inquisitive turn, 

 assures me, that when he was a great boy, some workmen, 

 in pulling down the battlements of a church tower early in 

 the spring, found two or three swifts (hirundines apodes) 

 among the rubbish, which were at first appearance dead ; 

 but, on being carried toward the fire, revived. He told me 

 that, out of his great care to preserve them, he put them in 

 a paper bag, and hung them by the kitchen fire, where they 

 were suffocated. 



Another intelligent person has informed me that, while he 

 was a schoolboy at Brighthelmstone, in Sussex, a great frag- 

 ment of the chalk cliff fell down, one stormy winter, on the 

 beach, and that many people found swallows among the 

 rubbish ; but, on my questioning him whether he saw any 

 of those birds himself, to my no small disappointment he 

 answered me in the negative ; but that others assured him 

 they did. 



Young broods of swallows began to appear this year on 

 July the llth, and young martins (hirundines urbicce) were 

 then fledged in their nests. Both species will breed again 

 once ; for I see by my Fauna of last year, that young broods 

 came forth so late as September the 18th.* Are not these 



* It will be seen in perusing this work that Mr. White constantly enter- 

 tained the idea that swallows occasionally hybernated in this country, although 

 he has failed in bringing forward any conclusive proof of the fact. We cannot 

 but regret that that he was not acquainted with the following very interesting 

 one, communicated to the editor by a lady of the highest respectability, who 

 not only witnessed it herself, but it was also seen by several members of her 

 own family. I will relate it in her own words : 



" A pair of swallows built their nest early in the summer, close to the iron- 

 stay of a water-spout, running in the direction from my bed-room window. 

 I could observe their proceedings as I lay in bed, and also from various parts 

 of my room. After the first hatch had taken flight, the parent birds repaired 

 the nest and sat again. The young ones were brought to life in September, 

 and were able, early in October, to leave the nest for the spout or the roof 

 of the house. They took a short flight across the court, but were too weak to 

 depart when the rest of these birds are supposed to quit our Island. Having 

 taken great interest in watching these little birds, I was led to wonder how 

 the young ones would manage, or whether they would be left to starve. To 

 my great surprise I found the old birds carrying mud one morning, and most 

 carefully closing the aperture of the nest upon the young ones who were then 



