by a variety of well attested facts, most of which 

 have been taken from the observations of naviga- 

 tors, who were eye witnesses of their flights, and 

 whose ships have sometimes afforded resting places 

 to the weary travellers. To the many on record we 

 shall add the following, which we received from a 

 very sensible master of a vessel, who, whilst he 

 was sailing, early in the spring, between the islands 

 of Minorca and Majorca, saw great numbers of 

 swallows flying northward, many of which alighted 

 on the rigging of his ship in the evening, but 

 disappeared before morning*.'' 



Pennant believed that the bulk of each species 

 migrated; but admits that some individual birds 

 may have occasionally been found torpid in winter : 

 in which opinion, Latham and White, and, in 

 short, most modern naturalists, appear to have 

 concurred. 



In fine, the result of my researches on this 

 subject has convinced me, that the swallow is a 

 migratory bird, annually revisiting the same coun- 

 tries, in common with other birds of passage; 



* Bewick's British Birds, vol. i. Introduction. 



