286 HISTORY OF 



Some inform us, that they have seen them taken 

 out of the water, and even from under the ice, in 

 bunches, where they are asserted to pass the win- 

 ter without motion. Reaumur, who particularly 

 interested himself in this inquiry, received several 

 accounts of bundles of swallows being thus found 

 in quarries and under the water. These men, 

 therefore, have a right to some degree of assent, 

 and are not to lose all credit from our ignorance 

 of what they aver. 



All, however, that we have hitherto dissected, 

 are formed within like other birds, and seem to 

 offer no observable variety. Indeed, that they do 

 not hide themselves under water, has been pretty 

 well proved by the noted experiment of Frisch, 

 who tied several threads died in water-colours, 

 round the legs of a great number of swallows 

 that were preparing for their departure: these, 

 upon their return the ensuing summer, brought 

 their threads back with them, no way damaged 

 in their colour ; which they most certainly would, 

 if, during the winter, they had been steeped in 

 water. Yet still this is a subject on which we 

 must suspend our assent, as Klein, the naturalist, 

 has brought such a number of proofs in defence 

 of his opinion that swallows are torpid in winter, 

 as even the most incredulous must allow to have 

 some degree of probability. 



