Migration of Swallows. 347 



some of our members (intelligent men, and very far 

 removed from credulity, in other matters,) so strong ; 

 that, on the arrangement hereafter mentioned being 

 put in progress, bags were carried, for the purpose of 

 bringing off torpid swallows. 



In order to satisfy the curiosity of some, and the 

 earnest desire of others, to ascertain the fact, — we ap- 

 pointed a committee, to take every measure the case 

 required. In the first instance, holes had been bored, 

 with a large auger, breast-high. Foria (Hquid ordure) 

 of birds, as it appeared, mixed with swallow feathers, 

 and rotten- wood-powder, issued from the holes. En- 

 couraged by these appearances, ultimate measures 

 were taken, A day was appointed, — ladders and ropes 

 prepared, — and carpenters engaged to block the tree ; 

 — for which purpose a stage was erected. Among 

 other members, I attended ; and a concourse of people 

 of the neighbourhood. The ladders were placed so as 

 to enable a person to enter the aperture in the tree, 

 near its forks. He descended, by a rope, through the 

 dark tunnel, till he came within eleven or twelve feet 

 of the surface of the ground. He lodged on a dry ajid 

 soft footing ; and the opening into the tree, was cut, at 

 this place, by the carpenters, of size sufficient to per^ 

 mit a man to enter ; so that the whole interior of the 

 tree was exposed to examination. The critical mo- 

 ment arrived for development. — Expectation was on 

 tiptoe ! — The composition of the soft^ and somewhat 

 elastic collection of matter, which filled the lower ca- 

 vity of the tree, — was found to be — not swallows /— ^ 

 but the deposits of those birds, both feathers and or- 

 dure, — mixed with the rotting and rotten remnants of 



