103 



sary to fulfil the end of their being; this instinct know- 

 ledge imparted by a mysterious power was therefore 

 superadded, and thus gifted by Providence, 



'* They reason not contemptibly." 



On this subject the most absurd notions have long 

 prevailed, and submersion and torpidity were substi- 

 tuted for migration. Pliny supposed that swallows 

 retired to the recesses of mountains, and reposed 

 in winter without feathers a period when of all 

 others they most required their plumage. The west 

 wind, as that contemporaneous with the arrival of the 

 swallow, was called " Chelidonian ; " and three islands 

 over against Mount Taurus received their names in 

 conformity with their being the supposed brumal 

 retreat of the swallow. 



The physiology of birds is certainly utterly repug- 

 nant to the idea of the submersion of swallows, and 

 sets all analogy at defiance : the leptura micans y 

 however, is an apparently curious exception ; for if 

 seems to descend by the stem of some rush or other 

 aquatic plant to deposit its ova in the mud of the 

 pool. Our swallows have been seen to congregate, 

 take their departure, and cross the Mediterranean 

 towards the coast of Africa ; and at that season of the 

 year when they are no longer seen in Britain, they 

 have been observed in Senegal and the adjoining 

 regions : after the autumnal departure, Adanson 

 found them wintering there. The fabulous idea, how- 

 ever, of their submersion, was entertained by Klein, 

 Daines Barrington, and Linnaeus, though on the most 

 insufficient grounds. Linnaeus even described their 

 previous solemn assemblage on reeds or on the banks 

 of rivers, and warbling their swallow song before they 

 F 4 



