238 



SWALLOWS. 



instances given, be enabled to clear up all doubts, or explain 

 what may still remain to some a mystery, we will give those 

 cases which have come to our knowledge, on the most 

 respectable authority. 



On the 1 6th of Xov ember 1826, a gentleman residing near 

 Loch Awe in Scotland, having occasion to examine an out- 

 house used as a cart-shed, saw an unusual appearance upon 

 one of the rafters which crossed and supported the thatched 

 roof. Upon mounting a ladder, he found, to his astonishment, 

 that this was a group of Chimney-Swallows, which had taken 

 up their winter quarters in this exposed situation. The group 



The Swallow. 



consisted of five, completely torpid, and none of the tribe to 

 which they belonged had been seen for five or six weeks pre- 

 viously : he took them in his hand as they lay closely and 

 coldly huddled together, and conveyed them to his house, in 

 order to exhibit them as objects of curiosity to the other mem- 

 bers of his family. For some time they remained to all appear- 

 ance lifeless ; but the temperature of the apartment into which 

 they were carried being considerably raised by a good turf fire, 

 they gradually evinced symptoms of reanimation ; and in loss 

 than a quarter of an hour, finding that they were rather rudely 

 handled, all of them recovered, so as to fly impatiently round 

 the room in search of some opening by which they might escape. 



