SWALLOWS: THEIE HIBEENATIOK 



THERE is not much that is interesting to be said of 

 swallows, which are not singing-birds, and do not by 

 their aerial flights attract attention, as if they were seen 

 creeping on the branches of trees, and associated with 

 their flowers. We watch with admiration their rapid 

 movements through the air, their horizontal flight along 

 the surface of some still water, and are charmed with 

 their twittering when assembled round their nests. 

 There was once a lively controversy in relation to the 

 manner in which swallows pass the winter. The opin- 

 ion of naturalists in Sweden and in the North of Eu- 

 rope, among whom we may name Linnaeus and Kalm, 

 was that swallows buried themselves in water under 

 the freezing-line, or slept in the crevices of rocks. This 

 theory has been discarded by modern naturalists, who 

 have authentic accounts of flocks of swallows which 

 have settled upon the masts and sails of ships when on 

 their passage to or from the countries where they pass 

 the winter. Still, the mystery is not cleared up. 



White of Selborne mentions a week in March that 

 was attended by very hot weather, when many species 

 of insects came forth, and many house-swallows appeared. 

 On the immediate succession of severe cold weather, the 

 swallows disappeared and were seen no more until April. 

 He mentions another instance recorded in his journal, of 

 the reappearance of swallows after a month's absence, on 

 the 4th of November, just for one day, which was remark- 

 ably warm, playing about at their leisure, as if they were 



